Jw
ifiii
■■"'■""IllliSlii:
""a
■^>.
'/'
-x^^
N r;
%s
"V^
&'
\Q^r.
\^^ -n^.
* «
■"^^ it^
.^■^■
^ ,6.^-
■^ /A
SILAS DEANE
CONNECTICUT LEADER IN THE
AMERICAN REVOLUTION
BY
From the portrait by Jared B. Flagg in the Gallery of the
Connecticut Historical Society. Hartford, Conn. Painted
from a miniature made in Paris when Deane was about
forty years old.
fa
G. P. PU'J vS
NEW YORK .... . .. ,, .i)is,
Tlbe -ftntcftcrtxxrllcr ptc&a
1913
\
3di \o ^19^^^^ ^rf^ Jtii §SB^'5 .fl btiiB\ xcf ^timiioq drier rnoiT
bsJniB*! .nno3 .bioiiiaH .yJaioog lBoho:t3rH :^juoiJo9nno3
jiJodB K£w s»n£9Q neriw ahfiS^ ni eb&m &iuimnsm b moi}
.bio 2i£3Y yJio^
\
\
SILAS DEANE
A CONNECTICUT LEADER IN THE
AMERICAN REVOLUTION
BY
GEORGE L. CLARK
AUTHOR OF ''NOTIONS OF A YANKEE PARSON"
s
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
NEW YORK AND LONDON
XTbe IRnicfterbocftcr iPrcsa
1913
DF.6'C^
Copyright, 1913
BY
GEORGE L. CLARK
Ube Iftniclierboclier press, mew Korft
(e)CI.A;!46683
^0
WETHERSFIELD
Home of Sterling Friends
PREFACE
*T^HE reasons for a book on Silas Deane are in
the following facts: he was prominent and
influential in the movements leading to the Revolu-
tion ; he was on important committees in the First
and Second Continental Congresses ; he was our first
agent to France for the Insurgents; he forwarded
military supplies, indispensable at Saratoga; he
commissioned Lafayette, De Kalb, and Steuben ;
he served as Commissioner with Franklin and
Arthur Lee, with whom he arranged and signed
the treaties with France; unjustly recalled, he
suffered for years from false and malicious charges ;
reduced to poverty and misery, he died when em-
barking on a new enterprise; fifty years later,
Congress vindicated his memory from the charge
of embezzlement; his life' was woven in with
critical events; his career was checkered; the
mistake of his life was serious, the sufferings
extreme, the fate — a dramatic close of the career
of one of the most efficient of the men of the
Revolution.
vi Preface
It is high time that the truth were told about
Deane, in the interests of justice to a man so mis-
understood and so wronged: because of the Hght
thrown on critical years in which he was associated
with Franklin, Morris, Jay, and others of their
class; because of unexpected glimpses of shadows
found in heroic times; because the study enables
us to see more clearly the pillars on which our
civil freedom rests, and the struggles and perils
of those trying days.
In his endeavor to discover all the facts bearing
on the case, to give all that seemed necessary
toward forming a fair judgment of Silas Deane,
and to present a clear view of his valuable services
in behalf of his country in a crucial age, the author
has been indebted to the librarians of the Con-
necticut Historical Society, the Watkinson Library,
and the Connecticut State Library, and to his
friend Edward Porritt, for many courtesies and
suggestions.
The authorities consulted are the Collections of
the Connecticut Historical Society; Collections of
the New York Historical Society; Correspondence
of Samuel B. Webb; Wharton's Diplomatic Cor-
respondence of the American Revolution; Life and
Works of John Adams; Works of Jared Sparks;
Colonial Records of Connecticut; Durand's New
Preface vii
Material on the American Revolution; J. B. Per-
kins's France in the American Revolution; Lives
of Franklin, Morris, and Jay; and articles in
magazines.
G. L. C.
Wethersfield, Connecticut.
May /, 1 913.
CONTENTS
PAGES
CHAPTER I
Silas Deane a Merchant in Wethersfield — Born in Groton in
1737 — Graduates from Yale in 1758 — Practises Law in
Wethersfield — Marries Mehitabel Webb in 1763 —
Later Marries Elizabeth Saltonstall — Becomes a Pros-
perous Merchant — How the People Lived in a Puritan
Village. 1-12
CHAPTER II
Deane's Activity in the Political Struggles before the
Revolution — The Stimulating Atmosphere of Patriot-
ism— ^Jared Ingersoll Resigns his Commission —
Wethersfield Sends Supplies to Boston — Deane Sent
to Legislature in 1772 — Secretary of Committee of
Correspondence ...... 13-20
CHAPTER III
Deane, Sherman, and Dyer Represent Connecticut in the
Continental Congress in 1774 — Deane's Opinion of
Sherman, Washington, and Patrick Henry — Deane
and Others Organize and Finance the Ticonteroga
Expedition — Formulates Rules for Navy — Serves on
Committees with Morris, Washington, Franklin, and
Jay — Discussions in Congress — Deeply Interested in
Forming a Navy ...... 21-37
ix
Contents
CHAPTER IV
Deane's Mission to France — Colonists Need Firearms and
Ammunition — Committee of Correspondence Send
Deane to Paris — Burdened with the Responsibility —
Wethersfield Merchant in Gay French Capital — Asks
for Supplies for Twenty-five Thousand Men — Well
Supplied with Good Advice — Obliged to Buy without
Money — Hindrances from British . . . 38-51
CHAPTER V
Deane, Vergennes, and Beaumarchais — Romantic Story of
Beaurnarchais — Arthur Lee's Flowery Talk with Beau-
marchais— Vergennes a Sterling Friend of America —
Ingenious Plan of Beaumarchais — Deane Arrives in
Paris in July — Supplies are Shipped and Tobacco
Called for in Return — Lee's Falseness Confuses Con-
gress— Beautiful Letters are Sent to France but Little
Tobacco — Ultimate Ruin of Beaumarchais . 52-72
CHAPTER VI
Deane Forwards Military Supplies — The French Insist on
Sending Officers with the Artillery — Soldiers of For-
tune— De Kalb's Plan to Put Bro^lie in Place of
Washington — Deane's Anxieties and Perplexities —
Commissions Steuben — Eight Ships Sail for Ports-
mouth with Supplies ..... 73-91
CHAPTER VII
Franklin and Lee Join Deane in Paris — Fitness of Franklin
for the Office of Commissioner — His Fame in Paris —
Contents xi
PAGES
Early History of Arthur Lee — Lee's Towering Ambition
— Duplicity — Deane's Resolute Plea — The French
Wary — News of Burgoyne's Surrender to an Army
Equipped from French Arsenals — Treaty Signed Feb. 6,
1778 — Death of Elizabeth Deane . . . 92-109
CHAPTER VIII
The Recall — Excitement over News of Saratoga — Congress
Calls Deane Home to Report on the State of Europe —
Deane Urges Vergennes to Send over a Fleet — Deane
Crosses the Atlantic in the Flagship of the Fleet — Com-
• parison of Deane and Lee — Jealousy of the Latter — Lee
Poisons the Minds of Leaders in America — Conspiracy
against Franklin — Deane bears Letters from Vergen-
nes, Franklin, and Beaumarchais — Deane's Success in
Paris 1 10-132
CHAPTER IX
The Hostility of Congress — A Frosty Reception — Delay in
Calling Deane to Report — Effects of Lee's Lying Letters
— Gang of Conspirators — Carmichael and Izard Work
with Lee — Months of Delay — Forty-two Appeals —
Congress at Low Ebb — Deane's Address of Dec. 5,
1778 — Excitement over the Drastic Appeal — Thomas
Paine Takes a Hand — Morris Defends Deane — Bitter
Debate — Franklin's Opinion of Lee . . 133-159
CHAPTER X
Deane's Second Mission to France a Failure — Morris Sym-
pathizes— Deane's Anxiety as he Returns to Paris —
Charges against Deane — Sympathy of Beaumarchais —
xii Contents
PAGES
Gathering Gloom — Deane Talks too Much — Poverty
and Worry — Fever 160-181
CHAPTER XI
Deane's Republicanism Weakens — "Paris Papers" — Nine
Intercepted Letters — Doubts over the Future of
America — Gloomy Views of a Discouraged Man . 182-192
CHAPTER XII
Deane an Exile in Holland — Comwallis Crushed while
Deane Despairs — Publication of Intercepted Letters —
Charge of Bribery — Tom Paine Happy — Franklin
Loses Confidence in Deane — Beaumarchais' Friendli-
ness— Increasing Poverty — Jay's Advice — Hard Times
for the Exile 193-214
CHAPTER XIII
Isolation, Poverty, and Misery in England — Illness of
Jesse Deane — Business Sends Deane to England —
Benedict Arnold Calls — Animosity Continues — Address
to America — Charged with Influencing England
against America — Laurens's Charges — Distress, Hun-
ger, and Robbery ...... 215-243
CHAPTER XIV
Deane's Last Enterprise and its Failure — Plan for a Canal
from Champlain to St. Lawrence — Delay because of
Illness — Palsied Limbs and Sinking Heart — Final Ap-
peals for Justice — Sails from Deal, England, Sept. 23,
1789 — Dies on Ship and Buried in Deal . . 244-253
I
Contents xiii
PAGES
CHAPTER XV
The Vindication — Reports of Death and Comments —
Charge of Atheism, Post-mortem Slander — Memorial to
Congress in 1 835 — Charges Exploded — In 1 842 , Thirty-
seven Thousand Dollars Voted to Deane's Heirs — Ver-
dict Concerning Deane's Character — In No Sense a
Traitor, but an Honest, Effective, though at Length
Discouraged Man 254-271
Index 273
SILAS DEANE
CHAPTER I
SILAS DEANE A MERCHANT IN WETHERSFIELD
IN the summer of 1633, venturesome and trying
•'• John Oldham gave the Massachusetts people
a little rest, and ascended the Connecticut to the
little Indian hamlet of Pyquag, a part of the
sachemdom of the chieftain Soheag, who reigned
at what is now Middletown, twelve miles down
river.
Attracted by the glorious elms, rich and sightly
uplands, broad meadows fertilized by freshets
every spring, waters teeming with fish, it is no
wonder that this pioneer in the following year
led a band of adventurers from Watertown,
Massachusetts, and building their log houses just
beyond the space visited by the spring floods,
they settled the ancient town of Wethersfield.
In the autumn of i635,Winthrop tells us, ''About
2 Silas Deane
sixty men, women, and little children went by land
toward Connecticut with their cows, horses, and
swine, and after a tedious and difficult journey,
arrived there."
The next period of a century and a half was
likewise tedious. Welcomed by the friendly
Indians along the river, as avenues of trade and
allies against the dangerous Mohawks and Pe-
quots, they bought a tract of land six miles square,
laid out their roads, built their homes, their church
and fortress, and entered upon a century and a half
of hard work and peril. There were years when
no one could be sure that a band of braves was
not lurking in the forest for months, waiting
for the right time for the midnight attack. Again
and again the citizen soldiers marched out of the
village streets on the Pequot campaign, to Deer-
field, Albany, for deadly Havana, to Louisburg,
Crown Point, Ticonteroga, and Quebec. The
campaign of 1762 ended the long contest known
as the "Old French War."
In that year, Silas Deane, a young lawyer
from Yale, put up his shingle in the town of
Wethersfield, which, despite its struggles and
losses, had grown wealthy and prosperous with
cultivating the soil, manufactures, and a brisk
shipping trade.
Merchant in Wethersfield 3
Silas Deane, son of Silas Deane, a blacksmith
of Groton, Connecticut, was bom December 24,
I737» graduated from Yale in the class of 1758,
taught school, after the custom of his time, studied
law, and was admitted to the bar in 1761.
The prosperous town, which was to be his home
for twelve years, had a population of 2500 inhabit-
ants, and a grand list three quarters as large as
that of Hartford. It was decidedly inviting
to the young lawyer, who saw no necessity for
starting at the foot of the ladder, but had the
nerve to marry on October 8, 1763, Mehitabel,
widow of Mr. Joseph Webb, five years his senior,
and blessed with six children and a thriving store.
Squire Deane threw himself into commercial
life with all his energy, and before long he was
widely known as a man of enterprise, vigor, and
good judgment.
In 1764, he built a substantial house just north
of his store, and soon afterwards a boy, Jesse,
his only child, was bom. On October 13, 1767,
his wife died of consumption, and later he married
Elizabeth,^ daughter of Governor Gurdon Salton-
stall of Norwich.
There was a large assortment in the population
of Wethersfield during those twelve years, while
Deane practised his calling of merchant, trader,
4 Silas Deane
and politician. It ranged all the way from Mrs.
Joseph Smith, who paid two pounds and ten
shillings for a pair of red shoes, to the squaw slave
owned by Rector Elisha Williams.
It startles us a little to think that in those days
of blossoming freedom there should have been
slaves in a Puritan village; but one in twenty-
five was negro or Indian, and many of these
humble people were slaves. The upright Leonard
Chester owned a "Neager Maide, " appraised
at twenty-five pounds. Some of the slaves were
offered their freedom if they would serve three
years in the army.
We must not press too far the question as to
the origin of these lowly helpers. We know the
origin of the Indian slaves. Long enough the steal-
thy red men carried terror and loss to the hamlets
by the Great River. No wonder some of their
descendants were kept washing dishes and hoe-
ing com.
Whether negroes were brought home in Wethers-
field sloops, odds and ends of human cargoes
landed in Southern ports, it is perhaps neither
discreet nor kind to ask. There were New Eng-
land ships in the slave-trade. Thrifty captains
left our ports for Lisbon, or the Canary Islands,
''and a market"; the market was the west coast
Merchant in Wethersfield 5
of Africa, and on the return there came a load
of blacks for the West Indies, Charleston, or
Savannah.
While not exciting, there was much variety
in the life of Wethersfield. A weekly paper,
The Connecticut Courant, came to town from
Hartford, four miles up river, after April, 1764.
There was no post-office until April i, 1794, and
no stage-coach tmtil after the Revolution, but
a public wagon went through the town at inter-
vals of a few days, for the town was on the great
road from Boston to New York.
A central feature of the life of the village was
the church, whose noble meeting-house was
building when Deane was wooing Mehitabel;
and in the church he had a prominent place.
The records tell us that when the society voted to
"discontinue the present method of lining out
the Psalms," Colonel Chester, Deacon May, and
Silas Deane were appointed to arrange the stations
of those who should carry the principal parts
of the singing.
It was at a time when the formalities of religion
were rigidly required. It was an expensive
thing to stay away from church. Not many
miles down river the setting sun one Saturday
found a man half -shaven, owing perhaps to a dull
6 Silas Deane
razor or a week's tough growth of beard, but he
was in church the next day with a muffler over
his half -shaven face.
How much rehgion Deane drank in we do
not know. His earher letters contain occasional
specimens of the language of rehgion, but after
he went to France they became less frequent.
A wide variety of industries was carried on
in the town. The first gristmill in the colony,
"come mill," it was called, was built on Mill
Brook, a mile south of the village, in 1635. Later,
windmills were used to grind grain, and sawmills
were operated by wind and water. "Brick
mills" prepared material for many substantial
houses and capacious chimneys with their
enormous ovens, on Fort Street, Sandy Lane,
Jordan Lane, Main and Broad Streets. There
were several tanneries at the time of which we
write, and Ephraim Williams's account book,
covering 1746 to 1760, gives an interesting story
of a merchant currier and shoemaker, who re-
ceived prices for boots and shoes which seem
extravagant in our more economical days. Colo-
nel Israel WilHams of Hartford paid him four
pounds for a pair of double-channelled pumps,
and for a pair of double-channelled boots the
price was fourteen pounds.
Merchant in Wethersfield 7
Boots were one of the extravagances which
the Puritans did not give up: the leather in one
pair would be enough for six pairs of shoes, and
those great square-toed casings would last a
lifetime, and become an heirloom. Captain
Jonathan Robbins had several pairs of silk shoes
made for his daughters, Mary and Elizabeth,
and pumps for his son, Appleton.
When Washington was in town, a guest in the
Webb house, in May, 1781, he was measured for
a pair of boots by a first-class Wethersfield shoe-
maker.
The "smithy'* was a far more important
establishment than nowadays, for axes, chisels,
ploughs, hoes, spades, nails, and spikes were made
there, as well as shoes for horses and cattle. The
fuel for the smithy was charcoal. There were
so many coal pits in one section of the town it
was called ''Collier Swamp. "
A prominent industry was pipe staves, mostly
of oak, put up in bundles or "shooks" and shipped
to the West Indies for hogsheads or casks for rum,
molasses, and sugar.
There was a fulling mill, and a carding and
weaving mill, though hand-looms wove serges,
kerseys, flannels, fustians, linsey-woolseys, tow-
cloth, dimities, ginghams, and jeans.
8 Silas Deane
Clothiers and tailors were hard at work, and
the year Deane reached town Rev. John Marsh
was credited on Jonathan Buckley's account
book with ''making one pair Leather Breeches —
four shillings, sixpence. "
Hats, too, were ''felted" from the fur of the
muskrat from the river, and sold in New York.
Ropes and cordage were in great demand for
the rigging of the ships made at Stepney, a hamlet
of Wethersfield four miles below. Hemp was
raised as early as 1640, and "hemp mills" and a
rope- walk were indispensable.
Fish, a leading attraction to the early settlers,
was abundant almost to superfluity in the river
before the days of chemicals and sewage. Salmon
and shad were sold in Hartford in 1700 for "less
than a penny a pound. " Fishes were sometimes
piled up on a comer lot for sale: and it was con-
sidered disreputable for any but "poor folks" to
eat shad. Apprentices, in binding themselves to
their masters, frequently stipulated that salmon
should not be served them as food oftener than
twice a week. Fish made a first-class fertihzer:
a shad in a hill of com was as strong a plant food
as a handful of phosphate.
The staple crops were grass, Indian com,
Indian beans, barley, rye, peas, onions, and
Merchant in Wethersfield 9
tobacco. Tobacco was a valuable export to the
West Indies. The famous Wethersfield, large
red onions were cultivated mainly by the women,
who were seldom too high-minded to shrink from
the lowly task of weeding them. Women were
fond of bimching them ; sitting around a heap of
fragrant bulbs, they dressed off the butcher, dis-
sected the doctor, did up the grocer, measured the
tailor, sized up the shoemaker, hammered the
blacksmith, and dozed over the minister.
We wish it were not necessary to mention
another industry, but they did have distilleries.
Farmers appreciated the still for it made a mar-
ket for their rye, and on all occasions, from a bam
raising to the ordination of the minister, flip was a
favorite beverage.
Apples were common after 1750, when orchards
began to come into bearing, and since there were
scarcely any winter varieties, the juice of the
apples could be preserved in barrels, to cheer and
sometimes inebriate, through the long cold months.
Cider was displacing at meals the beer, which the
women had brewed as regularly and conscien-
tiously as they made rye bread.
It was a neighborly kind of life the people lived ;
when farmers butchered, they exchanged spare-
ribs and quarters of beef and lamb. The common
10 Silas Deane
table ware was of pewter; there were no carpets
in the spare room beneath the gambrel-roof , but
what furniture there was, was substantial, well
made, though not always comfortable. The
cherry clocks, highboys, lowboys, chests, and
oaken chairs which have come down to us speak
of a sterling age.
The food of that time was varied. The Yankee
cooks were skillful in concocting dishes whose
mysteriousness would puzzle us to-day. No
doubt there came upon Deane's table berries of all
kinds, quinces, cherries, damsons, peaches, arti-
chokes, grapes, and walnuts, put into all kinds of
preserves, conserves, pickles, candies, syrups, and
cordials. He enjoyed peas, turnips, carrots, cu-
cumbers, beef, pork, lamb, geese, turkeys, and
chickens. Potatoes had a limited use, but apples
were wrought into tarts, shrub, dowdy, puff, and
the celebrated pie. Pumpkin pie was also a famous
dainty.
The store in which Deane did business stood
high, and was reached by five long stone steps,
one of which is in front of the present post-office.
He kept a large variety of goods : flour, molasses,
sugar, rope, knives, Barcelona handkerchiefs,
sieves, fustian, buttons. In 1765, he advertised
in The Connecticut Courant a quantity of choice
Merchant in Wethersfield ii
brandy, which he was willing to part with at a
very low rate for cash, either by the hogshead,
barrel, or keg, also hemp seed at twenty shillings a
bushel.
The Great River was a convenient thoroughfare
for extensive ventures, shipping lumber, barrel
staves, horses, cattle, tobacco, and onions to the
West Indies and Europe. Wethersfield was in full
sympathy with the rest of New England in com-
mercial activity. In 1760, the first lighthouse
was erected on the coast, paid for by a lottery
authorized by the General Assembly.
In 1768, Captain John Bulkley was running a
sloop from Wethersfield to the Caribbean Islands,
carrying oxen, horses, and cows. Trade was
springing up with Ireland, whither was sent
flaxseed, then and long afterward a staple pro-
duction. Flour and lumber were carried to
Gibraltar and Barbary. Vessels carried fish to
Lisbon and Bilboa, and brought back wines.
Lumber and potashes were shipped to England.
Beef and pork loaded many a sloop bound for
New York and the West Indies, bringing back
molasses, sugar, and spices.
The river was a busy place, and the life of the
young merchant was far from narrow in his store or
at the wharves, fitting out vessels, corresponding
12 Silas Deane
with business men near and far, caring for his
large household, attending to the duties of the
church and the merry social life, in that short
breathing spell between the Old French War and
the terrible Revolution, whose thunder clouds were
beginning to fill thoughtful minds with dread.
CHAPTER II
deane's activity in the political struggles
before the revolution
TTHE three river towns, Hartford, Wethersfield,
*■* and Windsor, held from an early date ad-
vanced views concerning the principles which led to
the Revolution. Their settlement was due more to
a democratic reaction against the aristocratic views
of Winthrop and Cotton as to government, than to
a desire for land. At first, the river towns were
governed by a commission established by the
Massachusetts Bay Colony, but four years after
the settlement began the people felt at liberty to
govern themselves, and on January 14, 1639, the
constitution of the new colony was adopted;
and into that constitution was written Thomas
Hooker's democratic theory of government.
Suffrage was granted to all free men, the princi-
ple of representative democracy was applied to the
infant state without reservation, and authority
was traced to the free suffrage of free men. This
13
14 Silas Deane
famous document, the constitution of 1639,
marks an epoch in the civil history of the world.
It put into action for the first time the declaration
made by Thomas Hooker, in his sermon, May 31,
1638, "that the foundation of authority is laid
firstly in the free consent of the people. '*
Thus, for the first time in history, the delegates
of Wethersfield, Hartford, and Windsor crystalHzed
into a written constitution the principles of de-
mocracy, which for centuries had been slowly
evolving in England, and later had such splendid
expression in the Constitution of the United States,
a constitution which has become the model for all
democracies. It is the first written constitution
defining its own powers. With such a past, we
are not surprised that Wethersfield, in the time of
Deane, had a keen interest in the political events
that led to the Revolution.
Opposition to the Stamp Act was as pronounced
in Connecticut as in the Bay Colony, and, as early
as 1765, the Sons of Liberty from the eastern
towns joined with those on the river in bold
defiance of the obnoxious measure.
Jared Ingersoll of New Haven, the stamp -
master newly appointed by the Crown, met with
such determined resistance that he was obliged to
resign his office. This opposition appeared first
Zeal for Freedom 15
in New Haven, New London, and Windham
counties, but, evading the demand for his resig-
nation, he started on horseback for Hartford
where the General Assembly was about to meet.
For a part of the way he was attended by Governor
Fitch to protect him from insult. On his way up
the river, when within a few miles of Wethersfield,
Ingersoll was met by a party of four or five mounted
men; half a mile farther he was met by a second
squad, and they all rode silently together until
they came to a company of five hundred free-
holders, all mounted, and armed with long, heavy
sticks, from which the bark had been peeled,
giving them a resemblance to the staves of office
carried by sheriffs and constables. This force,
led by one Durkee, with two fully uniformed
militia officers acting as aids, and heralded by three
trumpeters, rode, two abreast; and with quiet
courtesy, opening ranks to receive the stamp
collector, they closed silently around and behind
him. We think we can imagine his feelings, and
the cool-headed, humorous Tory saw the comical
side of the affair, for when one of his escort quizzi-
cally inquired of him what he thought of him-
self attended by such a retinue, Ingersoll, who
chanced to be riding a white horse, quickly replied
that he now had a clearer idea than ever before of ^'
i6 Silas Deane
that passage in the Revelation, which speaks of
" Death on a pale horse and all hell following. "
Reaching the immense elm in front of the
Colonel Chester mansion on Broad Street, the
procession halted, and demanded that the matter
be settled there. The stalwart farmers would
brook no delay, and Ingersoll, reading the faces
of his opponents, said, "The cause is not worth
dying for," and wrote and signed his resigna-
tion. He was then persuaded to shout three
iimes, "Liberty and Property. " After dinner the
mounted men attended Ingersoll to Hartford,
where he again read his resignation and the Sons
of Liberty dispersed.
Not long after this, the people of Wethersfield
had an opportunity to show their spirit of oppo-
sition to the encroachments of King George. In
April, 1768, the merchants of Massachusetts,
Connecticut, and New York made a compact to
unite in stopping the importation of goods from
Great Britain. The Connecticut merchants kept
the agreement with more fidelity than those of
New York, and this led to a general convention of
delegates from all the towns of the Connecticut
colony to "take into consideration the perilous
condition of the country, to provide for the
growth and spread of home manufactures, and
Zeal for Freedom 17
to devise more thorough means for carrying out
to the letter the non-importation agreement."
The spirit of the people was manifested in the
resolutions passed by the town meetings.
At a meeting held in Wethersfield, December
25, 1769, it was
Voted that it is and ever has been the opinion of this
town that the late acts of Parliament commonly
called the American Revenue Acts, imposing certain
duties on paper, glass, etc., are in themselves un-
constitutional, offensive, and tending to that total
subversion of the liberties of his Majesty's subjects
in America ; that the opposition made thereto through-
\ out the Continent has been noble, just, firm, and
; deserving of highest applause through every age.
' That in particular the resolution against import-
I ing goods of merchandise from Great Britain, until
said Acts are repealed, so genuinely and unanimously
\ come into by the merchants in America, and so uni-
versally approved of by the people, is worthy of the
j highest commendation, as being the most effectual
I method for obtaining relief, — Do resolve to abide by
the same, and as far as possible to prevent the least
breach thereof by any of the inhabitants of this town
or others : nor will we purchase nor use nor consume
any goods imported contrary to said agreement, so
universally come into.
And, for the more effectual preventing any counter-
acting said resolution, we do appoint Messeurs. Silas
Deane, Ezekiel Williams, Elisha Williams, David
Webb, and Elias Williams, a committee, directing
i8 Silas Deane
them, with the utmost vigilance and care to guard
against and prevent any attempt to put in execution
so fatal and infamous a purpose as that of sacrificing
the good of this Continent and their posterity to pri-
vate gain and emolument: desiring them to corre-
spond and consult with, as well as aid and assist, the
other committees appointed in the neighboring towns
and elsewhere for this purpose.
On February 20, 1774, when Connecticut mer-
chants declared non-intercourse against the mer-
chants of .'Newport, charging them with infraction
of the non-importation agreement, designed to
coerce England into a fuller acknowledgment of
American rights, Deane was clerk of the meeting,
and signed the circular.
Unwilling to wait for the formal action of the
General Assembly in October, the people of Weth-
ersfield met in the Congregational meeting-house
in June, to express sympathy with Boston, which
was suffering from the Port Bill. Resolutions of
sympathy were passed, and a committee appointed
to receive contributions from the people and for-
ward them to Boston, and the first name on the
list of contributors is Silas Deane. In October,
1772, Deane took his place with Captain Belden in
the General Assembly, of which he was a member
until two years later, when he was sent to the
Continental Congress.
Zeal for Freedom 19
We look in vain for many exciting incidents in
the legislation of those years. A large part of the
energy of the law makers was exercised in ap-
pointing officers for the trainbands in the different
towns. It was voted that Deane and three others
be appointed a committee to receive money to
be raised by a lottery, to erect buoys and other
signals on Saybrook Bar. ^
It was voted, in 1772, that a horse thief
should be fined and publicly whipped, and sent to
jail for three months, and on the first Monday
of the other two months, he was to receive publicly
ten more lashes.
On May 21, 1773, a letter having been received
from the House of Burgesses of Virginia concern-
ing the support of the ancient, legal, and con-
stitutional rights, it was voted in the Connecticut
Assembly that a standing committee of nine be
appointed, called a Committee of Correspondence,
"whose business it shall be to obtain all such in-
telligence, and keep up and maintain a correspond^
ehce and communication with our sister colonies. "
Deane was the zealous and efficient secretary of
this committee.
In the same year, he was appointed on an im-
portant committee concerning western lands, in
the settlement of the Susquehanna Claims.
' 20 Silas Deane
In March, 1774, the governor of Connecticut
sent to the Earl of Dartmouth, a British Secre-
tary of State, a letter complaining of the dis-
sensions due to British aggression, and of the
unlimited powers claimed by Parliament, which
were driving the Americans to the border of de-
spair; expressing deep sympathy with Boston,
whose closed port had wrought such distress; and
while insisting that the interests of the two
countries were identical, yet calling for relief.
One of the six men of the lower house appointed
to confer with a committee of the upper house on
this matter was Deane.
. Evidently the young lawyer-merchant was
giving good account of himself in the colonial
-A * Assembly, and in the movement which was lead-
» , ing up to the Revolution; and when, in 1774, it
was proposed to hold in Philadelphia a Conti-
' nental Congress, it was natural that Deane should
be sent on the important mission of assisting in
the organization of the colonies into unanimity
/ and efficiency, to suppress disorder, and boldly
resist the stupid endeavors of the British
Ministry.
CHAPTER III
DEANE, SHERMAN, AND DYER REPRESENT CON-
NECTICUT IN THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS
nPHE work of Deane on the Committee of
•■■ Correspondence of the colony was so effect-
ive, and his reputation as a patriot of good judg-
ment and devotion so high, that he was appointed
to serve with Judge Roger Sherman of New Haven
and Eliphalet Dyer of Windom to represent.
Connecticut in Philadelphia in 1774. On August
16 of that year, Deane wrote to Governor Trum-
bull to find the number and size of the ships of the
colony, and a general statement of its imports and
exports. He urged the importance of accurate
accounts, and added, '*I purpose setting out next
Monday."
It was a great day for Wethersfield when their
able young statesman, in the full vigor of his
prime, set forth for Congress on Monday, August
22, 1774. He was thirty-seven years old; he had
a wide acquaintance with the leading men in his
own colony, and in the neighboring colonies. A
21
22 Silas Deane
large number of the principal men of the town
escorted him as far as Middletown, twelve miles
down the river. His step-son, Samuel B. Webb,
who was just twenty-one, attended him. Webb
was commissioned lieutenant-major at Bunker
Hill, and afterwards, through Deane 's influence,
he obtained a position on Washington's staff.
The quality of the training of Webb under the
eye of Deane is suggested by the charge which has
come down to us: ''Be master of your pleasures,
and not let them master you. Let me urge on
you patience and assiduity until you can be
honorably advised. Master all the principles
and movements of the great army."
They were joined at New Haven by Eliphalet
Dyer, and at Fairfield, by Roger Sherman, and on
Thursday, August 25, they reached New York,
and put up at Hill's Tavern at the sign of the
Bunch of Grapes.
In those days, before the lumbering stage-
coach had appeared, Deane traveled in his own
carriage, and there is an interesting comment on
the extravagance which ignorant critics after-
wards attributed to him in his village career.
He wrote to his wife that while in New York he
visited a carriage factory to learn the prices, and
when he found that it would cost five pounds to
Delegate to Congress 23
paint and regild his carriage he denied himself the
luxury, fearing his money would not hold out till
he reached home.
We let Deane tell the story of this expedition.
Writing to his wife EHzabeth, he says :
We left the Bridge after dinner, and baiting by the
way arrived in town at six. Instantly Mr. Bayard
came up and forced us directly to the Exchange,
where were the Boston delegates and two from South
Carolina, and all the gentlemen of considerable note
in the city in a mercantile way: when we had dined,
and were passing around the glass, we went the
round of introduction and congratulation, and then
took our seats. The glass had circulated just long
enough to raise the spirits of every one to that nice
point which is above disguise or suspicion. Of conse-
quence I saw that it was an excellent opportunity to
know their real situation. Cool myself, I was not
afraid of sharing in the jovial entertainment; there-
fore, after the introduction, I waived formality of
sitting at the upper part among my brother delegates,
and mixed up among the gentlemen of the city. I
found many favorable to the cause and willing to go
any length. I found they were fond of paying great
court to Connecticut. We broke up at nine.
Deane gives an interesting glimpse of Judge
Sherman, so famous later for his work on the
Declaration of Independence and the Constitu-
tion of the United States. He wrote his wife:
24 Silas Deane
Mr. Sherman is clever in private, but I will only say
he is as badly calculated to appear in such a company
as a chestnut burr is for an eyestone. He occasioned
some shrewd countenances among the company, and
not a few oaths by the odd questions he asked, and
the very odd and countrified cadence with which he
speaks, but he was and did as well as I expected.
At that early time, Deane found traces of a
V spirit, which in later years was to bring him such
keen misery. He says, "The more I converse in
l^ the city, the more I see and lament the virulence
of party."
Judge Sherman's Puritan strictness was a trial to
' Deane, who wrote his wife on Sunday, August 28 :
^ Heard Parson Treat in the forenoon and Mr. Ledlie
in the afternoon. Mr. Sherman (would to heaven
he were well at New Haven ! ) is against our sending
our carriages over the ferry this evening because
it is Sunday, so we shall have a scorching sun to drive
forty miles in to-morrow.
Deane bought some new clothes in New York,\
and evidently the assortment was scanty, for he
wrote, " I am not well suited, but took the best I
^ found."
His letters are full of tender solicitude for his
*^ wife, whose health was evidently frail. He says:
Delegate to Congress 25
Pray omit nothing conducive to your health and
peace of mind. I have been really ill until this after-
noon, when the villainous carelessness of the tailor so
awakened me that I feel well. I go hence with an
additional weight upon my spirits by reason of the
uncertainty I am in, and remain in, as to your health.
Still heavier would have been his load, could he
have realized that he would scarcely see her again.
She died while Deane was in Paris.
At Trent Town it was hot. " I was worn, '* he
says, " anxious, sick, went to bed after eleven, but_
could not sleep ; I turned and turned, while Judge
Sherman, who lodged in the same chamber, snored '
in concert." . ^
Deane was pleased with the delegates from -
Virginia and other Southern States. " They ap-
pear," he says, "like men of importance, sociable,
sensible, and spirited men."
We see the effects of their stimulus upon the
Wethersfield legislator, when we read, "We are
in high spirits when the eyes of millions are upon
us, and consider posterity is interested in our
conduct." ^
He speaks of the prospect of unanimity and of
the willingness to undergo hardship
in the arduous task before us, which is as arduous t
and of as great consequence as ever man undertook, or
26 Silas Deane
engaged in. I never met, nor scarcely had an idea
of meeting, with men of such firmness, sensibiHty,
spirit, and thorough knowledge of the interests of
America as the gentlemen of the Southern provinces
appear to be. May New England go hand in hand
with them.
Yet with all his admiration for Washington,
Henry, Randolph, and Dickinson, he is proud to
represent Connecticut, and well he might be, for
Connecticut entered the Revolution under singu-
larly favorable conditions, passing as a whole
from a royal colony into the revolutionary state
by the alteration of a few words in the enactment
of the legislature. In a moment the royal
governor became the governor of a new state.
Not so was it with Massachusetts, rent by
faction, the extreme revolutionists in control.
Not so in New York, where royalty was strong,
and the success of the popular party for a time
doubtful; where wealth, position, and influ-
ence favored conservatism, and inclined toward
neutrality.
Connecticut could act with greater freedom,
directness, and force. Her trade with the West
Indies and Europe gave her ready money, and
furnished a body of hardy seamen. Connecticut
had for generations been in the fire of Indian wars,
Delegate to Congress 27
and through the Revolution General Washington
turned repeatedly to the governor of Connecticut
for counsel, men, and means. Governor Jona-
than Trumbull was the "Brother Jonathan," on
whom he depended in many a day of stress and
anxiety.
Deane wrote from Philadelphia:
I see the Wethersfield company under Captain
Chester appeared with honor on a recent occasion.
This has made me an inch taller, though I am prouder
as I may say of Connecticut than I dare express:
not a colony on the continent stands in higher
estimation among the colonies.
Congress met on September 7, and Reverend
Mr. Duche offered a prayer which Deane said
"was worth riding one hundred miles to hear;
even Quakers shed tears.'*
He sketches Randolph, president of Congress,
as noble and dignified in appearance, and may be
rising of sixty years: Mr. Henry, the lawyer, is the
completest speaker I ever heard : Colonel Washington
is tall, very young-looking, and of an easy, soldier-like
air and gesture. He does not appear above forty-five.
It is said that in the House of Burgesses, hearing of the
Boston Port Bill, he offered to train and arm a thou-
sand men at his own expense. Colonel Washington
speaks very modestly and in cool but determined
style and accent.
28 Silas Deane
Little remains of the records of the doings of
that first Congress. On September 23, he writes,
"Business is slow from the vast extent and lasting
i^importance of the questions. "
\ Deane was elected with Sherman and Dyer
by the colonial legislature to the second Congress,
, which met in May, 1775; but, before his second
expedition to Philadelphia, an event occurred
which gave him congratulation and praise.
The first conquest made by patriots was the
capture of Fort Ticonteroga on May 10, 1775, by
Colonel Ethan Allen.
The history of the origin of the enterprise, to
jvhich belongs the honor of compelling the first
surrender of the British flag to the coming re-
public, has been made clear by J. H. Trumbull.
On Thursday forenoon, April 27, Colonel S. H.
Parsons of Middletown arrived at Hartford from
Massachusetts, eager for a project to surprise
Fort Ticonteroga. This project was conceived in
an interview which Parsons had with Benedict
Arnold, captain of a company of volunteers, on
their march to the camp at Cambridge. On
that eventful Thursday, Colonel Parsons, Colonel
Samuel Wyllys of Hartford, and Silas Deane of
JWethersfield first undertook and projected taking
the fort. A sum of three hundred pounds was
Delegate to Congress 29
obtained from the treasurer of the colony, on the
personal note of these men with three others, and
the money was soon on its way northward ; and a
swift express was sent to Colonel Ethan Allen
requesting him to be ready with his valiant Green
Mountain Boys.
This prompt action of Deane is in accord with a
letter of his to Ebenezer Watson, of the Courant,
in which he speaks of some who are too fear-
ful of spending money, or of losing property. He
says, "There is no alternative except to submit
or prepare to resist even unto blood. "
The success at Ticonteroga gave Deane some
prestige in Congress, and with his experience with
men, his energy, and address, we are not surprised
to find him on important committees. A naval
force was one of his favorite projects.
With Washington, Schuyler, and others he was
appointed to consider means of procuring military
supplies for the colonies, and with Washington to
estimate the cost of equipping an army.
He formulated the rules for a continental navy
and October 15, 1775, selected and purchavSed the
first vessel for the service. He was also a member
of the Committee of Secrecy, organized September
18, 1775, to purchase arms and ammunition in
Europe.
30 Silas Deane
On December ii, Congress appointed a strong
Committee of Ways and Means for furnishing a
naval armament. This committee numbered such
men as Robert Morris and Samuel Adams, but
Silas Deane was the chairman.
On May 26, 1775, Deane, with John Jay, Samuel
Adams, and others, was appointed on a committee
to send a letter to Canada.
Jime 14, Deane was appointed on a committee
with George Washington to bring in a draft of
rules and regulations for the army.
July 31, Deane was appointed on a committee
with John Adams, Franklin, and others, to make
inquiry in the recess of Congress about virgin
lead and leaden ore, and the best methods of
refining it.
On September 9, Deane was appointed on the
committee of nine to import five hundred tons of
powder, or saltpetre and sulphur, forty brass
cannon, and twenty thousand good, plain, double-
bridled musket locks, and ten thousand stands of
good arms.
On September 21, Deane was appointed on a
committee of five, to consider the best means of
^supplying the army with provisions.
There were very able men in those Congresses,
men of the caHber of Thomas Jefferson, Robert
^^^^:
Delegate to Congress 31
Morris, John Jay, George Washington, John Adams,
and John Dickinson, and it is clear from the
respect in which Deane was held, as shown by his
appointment to the above and other committees,
that he was regarded as in the first class of the
strong men of the country.
Fragments of the debates have come down to us
^^'through John Adams's tireless Journal.
.:. On September 23, Paine said: *'We have not
agreed to clothe the soldiers, and the quarter-
master-general has no right to keep a slop shop
any more than any one else."
Deane sprang to his feet and exclaimed: "The
army must be clothed or perish. There is no
preaching against the snow-storm. We ought to
look out that the men are kept warm, and that
the means of doing it be secured. "
In reply to Sherman, who said, "The sutlers in
the last war sold to the soldiers, who were not
obliged to take anything," Deane replied, "The
soldiers were imposed on by the sutlers in the last
war. "
On October 12, in the debate on the state of
trade, Deane said: "We must have trade; I think
we ought to apply abroad; we must have pow-
der and goods; we can't keep our people easy
without." ^
32 Silas Deane
This will be developed in the next chapter, but
we cannot conclude our story of Deane 's career
in Congress without referring to his acquaintance
with George Washington.
On June i6, 1775, Deane wrote to his wife :
General Washington will be with you soon ; elected
to that office by the unanimous voice of all America.
I have been with him for a great part of the last
forty-eight hours in Congress and Committee, fand
the more that I have become acquainted with the
man, the more I esteem him. He promises me to
call, and, if it happens favorably, to spend the night
with you. I wish to cultivate this gentleman's ac-
quaintance and regard, for the great esteem I have
, of his virtues, which do not shine in the view of the
world by reason of his great modesty, but when dis-
covered by the discerning eye shine brighter. I know
you will receive him as my friend, and what is more —
his country's friend, who, sacrificing private fortune,
independence, ease, and every domestic pleasure, sets
off at his country's call to exert himself in her de-
fense without so much as returning to bid adieu to
a fond partner and family. Let our youth look up
to this man as a pattern to form themselves by,
who unites the bravery of a soldier with the most
consummate modesty and virtue.
On June 18, Deane wrote again to his wife :
General Washington sets out on Thursday of this
week. I have a strong temptation to accompany
him quite to the camp. This morning, Colonel
Delegate to Congress 33
Schuyler and I rode as far as the Falls at Schuylkill ;
our ride was to consult a plan we are forming for
another bold stroke like that of Ticonteroga (which
is become my nickname at times). People here,
members of Congress and others, have unhappily and
erroneously thought me a schemer; this has brought
me rather more than my share of business in a
commerical way.
He adds with a possible premonition of coming
troubles :
I find, however, that he that has the least to do in
public affairs stands the fairest chance of happiness.
If General Washington sets out on Thursday, he
will be in New York early on Saturday, where affairs
will doubtless detain him until Monday or Tuesday,
and in that case he will be with you on the Friday
following. He is no lover of parade, so do not put
yourself in distress. If it happens convenient, he will
spend one night with you; if not, just call and go on.
Should he spend a night, his retinue will doubtless go
on to Hartford.
On June 22, Deane wrote again to his wife,
"This will be handed you by his Excellency,
General Washington, in company with General
Lee and retinue."
On June 29, Deane wrote his wife :
I hope before this you have seen General Washington
and friends on their way with health and spirits; the
bearer of this is General Gates of Virginia, a general
34 Silas Deane
' of great experience in war, who leaves an affluent
^ and independent situation for the service of the
colonies. You will receive him with the respect due
to his character.
On July I, he writes :
^ I have the fullest assurance that these colonies will
rise triumphant, and shine to the latest posterity,
though trying scenes are before us. Tell my brother
to get his vessel away as quick as possible somewhere
or other, ... I hope to see vessels of war on our
side soon.
Deane strongly favored Putnam in preference
to Wooster as general; he liked his bluff, hearty
ways. ''He is the toast of the army," he said.
On July 20, he wrote Mrs. Deane:
I am glad the good and virtuous of Connecticut are
willing to stand by the resolution of Congress in the
appointment of General Putnam. He does not wear
a large wig, nor screw his countenance into a form
that belies the sentiments of his generous soul. He
is no adept either at politics or religious canting or
cozening; he is no shake-hand body; he, therefore, is
totally unfit for everything but fighting; that, I
never heard these intriguing gentry wanted to in-
terfere with him in. I have scarce any patience. O
Heaven blast, I implore thee, every such low, narrow,
selfish, envious manoeuvre in the land, nor let one
such succeed far enough to stain the fair page of
American patriotic politics !
Delegate to Congress 35
My principles are (the eye of my God knows them,
and the most envious eye of man or the bitterest
tongue of slander cannot find anything in my political
conduct to contradict them) to sacrifice all lesser
considerations to the service of the whole, and in this
tempestuous season to throw cheerfully overboard
private fortune, private emolument, even my life, —
if the ship, with the jewel Liberty, may be safe. This
being my line of conduct, I have calmness of mind
which more than balances my external troubles, of
which I have not a few.
This we regard as Deane's valedictory, in
closing two terms in the Continental Congress.
Associating with men of light and power, with
Franklin, Washington, Jay, and Morris, he ranked
with the best.
The reasons for his failure of an election to a
third term are variously given. A letter from
John Trumbull to Deane, October 20, 1775, may
explain the situation. Speaking of the malice
and envy of the freemen against him, he adds:
"We have a strange people here as well as else-
where, who say, * It is dangerous to trust so great
power as you now have for a long time in the
hands of one set of men, lest they should grow
too self-important, and a great deal of mischief in
the end.'"
This brilliant excuse for pushing aside a tried
and able man that some ambitious aspirant
36 Silas Deane
might have his inning is elderly, and not yet
decayed.
On November 26, 1775, Deane wrote his wife:
I am quite willing to quit my station to abler men.
My long and thorough acquaintance with the genius
of the Assembly prevents my being surprised at any
sudden whim, or uneasy at any of their resolutions so
far as they respect myself, individually. On a review
of the part I have acted on the public theatre of life,
an examination of my own genius and disposition,
unfit for trimming, courting, and intrigues with the
populace, I have greater reason to wonder how I be-
came popular at all. What, therefore, I did not ex-
pect, I have too much philosophy to be in distress at
losing. I only wish that my friends felt as easy on
this occasion as I. I should be sorry that you or my
friends should manifest any uneasiness on my being
superseded. One of the greatest pleasures I enjoy
is a consciousness of the rectitude of my intentions
and conduct.
One of the last acts of the Naval Committee
was to direct Deane to go at once to New York,
buy a ship to carry twenty nine-pounders, and a
sloop of ten guns, fit them out and send them
through the Sound to New London for seamen, and
to arm.
On December 15, he wrote his wife: "Naval
preparations are now entering with spirit, and
yesterday Congress chose a standing committee
Delegate to Congress 37
to superintend this department of which I had
the honor to be chosen one. "
The last letter from Congress was written
January 2 1 , 1 776, to his wife. He says :
Colonel Dyer pleaded, scolded, fretted, and even
threatened to make me set out for home with him,
and parted in ill humor. It is necessary to tarry,
to close the naval accounts and assist in getting
forward the preparation for the fleet in the coming
season.
Connecticut had no occasion to be ashamed of
any one of her representatives to the first and
second congresses, but Deane had been in train-
ing for wider enterprise and a more responsible
task.
CHAPTER IV
DEANE'S mission to FRANCE
"\ Y 7HEN it was apparent that there was to be a
^^ struggle between the colonies and England,
the question which disturbed every thoughtful
man was, where shall we get the munitions of
war? There were no facilities here for the manu-
facture of guns and powder.
In one of his early letters, Deane explained to
the committee how the French made cannon, as
though the industry were new to him and to his
readers. The muskets first used in the Revo-
lution were of every variety : plain weapons, made
by village blacksmiths, useful for killing bears,
deer, wild cats, and Indians. Agents went from
house to house to obtain firearms ; and the obstacles
in the way of securing powder were overwhelming.
After the battle of Lexington, it is said that there
was not powder enough in the thirteen colonies for
a week's fighting, and that English troops could
have marched from Boston to Savannah with
but slight resistance.
38
i9£l;t io\ aoflfii'? ni asilqqua saBfloijjq oi snBsQ 8£li8 oi noiaaimraoD ^o alimia^e'T
^fjJoiiosnnoD 9rf;t io aohzeszoq snJ ni won iBnighO rictnh yiBnoiJwIova^
.xmo3 .biol^lTfiH .vi-bhr*?. lBDno;t8tH
CHxU'TER IV
HF^NE's mission to FRANCE
V
rem mai there was to be a
r. '".r. -olonies and England,
{ crrry thonf^htful
Facsimile of Commission to Silas Deane to purchase supplies in France for the
Revolutionary Army. Original now in the possession of the Connecticut
Historical Society, Hartford, Conn.
tactuie of guiis aiid pt
In 0^ "* ' ' *rly kiiers, i^'cane expia^i.ea i
^>" •'.-.... -^ .. ?w the Frer '^ r^'-ie cannon, o
the industry were nc a and to hi
The muskets t d in the Revo
' tion were of eve apons, mad^
by village blacksmith.-,, uaciui ior killing bear:
deer, wild cats, and J '- - ' ts went fro!
house to house to obtaii. ..; .. ... ....... ^ the obstacle
in the way of securing powder were overwhelming
After the battle of Lexington, it is said that ther
was not powder enough in the thirteen colonies fc
a V. "ig. and that English troops couL
ha from Boston to Savannah wit^
bui . - ' ivico
38
h/ //:c .tnlieriinWO.' /'f..,.: ■'■'.. j..'.„ ,., . /Zr* ^t (''
■^ l-aiciu, c<rU^,j <o('i'^'^ ./••....., ,-.^.,,..,, . /;..y/ / , , V.,,,, , M-*,.-^-.,^/'. .^-^
^^..,:^ .->/-.:,:; ;-4,./^ .».:^ i,:^-.:
■'-" ^^
v^^.,.i ,^
^.77. . '^/^/^^'.V'.^^,
i
*
Ai
v^;
/'^ ..'/>;^
/
Mission to France 39
The Committee of Safety in New York wrote
in July, 1775: **We have no arms, we have no
powder, we have no blankets. "
Whether or not the colonies could have won
their independence without the aid of France is
an interesting topic for conversation on the ver-
anda, on a pleasant summer evening, but there
are facts which stand out clearly in the Revo-
lution, and one is that when Burgoyne surrend-
ered at Saratoga, and such standing was given
thereby to the continental cause that a recog-
nition of independence was made by the French
Court on the following February, the British
soldiers, as they laid down their arms, found
themselves surrounded by muskets and fusils and
a train of artillery which Silas Deane had sent
over from France.
When Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown,
the victory was essentially French. The fleet,
which was indispensable, was French, under the
lead of Admiral de Grasse; the allied army num-
bered fifteen thousand men, and after the ar-
rival of the French recruits who came with the
fleet, Lafayette had under his command seven
thousand French soldiers. At that time a man-
of-war carried a small army; the entire strength
of the fleet was twenty thousand men, and the
40 Silas Deane
marines could furnish assistance for a land at-
tack, so that we can say that one half the army
was French. Furthermore, American soldiers
were kept in the ranks by French money.
Washington wrote Morris, August 17, that the
American troops destined for the southern ser-
vice must have a month's pay in specie. Morris
made application to Count de Rochambeau for a
loan of twenty thousand dollars. The necessity
was so urgent, that Washington's usual calmness
vanished. He wrote: **I cannot leave without
entreating you in the warmest terms to send on a
month's pay at least, with all the expediency
possible — I wish it to come on the wings of
speed. " The French hard money put the men into
a proper temper, and the victory at Yorktown was
essentially French.
What has this to do with the mission of Silas
Deane to France? Much every way. As early
as September, 1775, John Adams proposed in
Congress that application be made to Europe for
military supplies. He clearly saw that it was
one thing to conduct an irregular warfare with
the Indians, or a long struggle with French and
Indians when backed by British arsenals, but
quite another thing to face the British Empire,
armed with a few matchlocks bored by the village
Mission to France 41
blacksmith. Adams's proposition was rejected.
''It was too much for the nerves of Congress,"
Adams wrote; "the grimaces, the convulsions were
very great." Even the almost infallible Franklin
objected to a virgin state "suitoring for alliances,"
but events ripened fast, and on November 29,
1775, a committee was appointed by Congress
called the Committee of Secret Correspondence,
whose members were among the most eminent and
trusted fathers of the Revolution. The purpose
of the committee was to "correspond with friends
of the colonies in Great Britain, Ireland, and other
parts of the world. " Provision was made for de-
fraying expenses, and paying such agents as the
committee might send.
The country to which Congress naturally looked
for help was France, the ancient rival and enemy
of Great Britain; and the man who was chosen
for a task, on whose success the prosperity of
future campaigns so largely depended, was Silas
Deane. It is scarcely necessary to repeat the
varied and well-worn phrases of disparagement
of the object of their choice. It is certainly
remarkable that men of the caliber of Franklin,
Morris, and Jay, who had been intimately associ-
ated with Deane during two terms of Con-
gress, should have chosen a man for such a task,
42 Silas Deane
without the most careful deliberation. They knew
the difficulties and responsibilities before their
agent, and the evidence of their confidence is in
the following commission :
We, the undersigned, being the Committee of
Congress for Secret Correspondence, do hereby certify
whom it may concern that the Bearer, the Honorable
Silas Deane, Esquire, one of the delegates from the
colony of Connecticut, is appointed by us to and into
France, there to transact such business, commercial
and political, as we have committed to his care in be-
half and by the authority of the Congress of the
thirteen united colonies. In testimony whereunto
we have set our hands and seals at Philadelphia,
2 March, 1776.
B. Franklin
Benj. Harrison
John Dickinson
John Jay
Robert Morris.
It was no light thing for Deane to leave his
wife, whose health was frail, whom he was des-
tined never to see again, and to part with his son
Jesse, a boy of ten years who had never been
well, to undertake a mission upon which the
eyes of the whole country were fixed, and upon
whose success so much depended. That he felt
his responsibility appears from his parting letter
to his wife, to whom he wrote :
Mission to France 43
I have, in one of the most solemn acts of my life,
committed my son and what I have to your care, and
the care of my Brother, confident that you will be to
him a real mother, which you have ever been, and
guard his youth from anything dangerous and dis-
honorable. I can but feel for the pain I must have
given you by this adventure. You have in every
situation discharged your duty as one of the best
partners and wives, while on my part, by a peculiar
fatality attending me from my first entry into public
life, I have ever been involved in one scheme after
another so as to keep my mind in constant agitation,
and my attention fixed on other objects than my own
immediate interests.
The present object is great : I am about to enter on
the great state of Europe, and the consideration of
getting myself well established weighs me down, with-
out the addition of more tender scenes ; but I am
" Safe in the hand of the protecting Power,
Who ruled my natal, and must fix my mortal hour.'*
It matters but little, my dear, what part we act or
where, if we only act it well. I wish as much as any
man for the enjoyment of domestic ease, peace, and
society, but I am forbid experience in them soon;
indeed, it must be criminal in my own eyes, did I
balance them one moment in opposition to the public
good, 'and the call of my country.
I hope to sail on Tuesday. May God Almighty
protect you safe through the vicissitudes of time.
Deane set out on his journey early in March,
1776; sailing by the Bermudas and landing in
44 Silas Deane
Spain, he escaped the British cruisers. He made
his way over the Pyrenees, and after visiting
several French cities, he arrived in Paris early in
July. He entered upon his mission with caution
and some embarrassment. Beaumarchais wrote:
"M. Deane does not open his mouth before the
EngHsh-speaking people he meets. He must be
the most silent man in France, for I defy him to
say six consecutive words in French."
If Deane was poorly supplied with French,
he was well equipped with good advice. "On
your arrival in France," began the letter from
the committee of March 3, 1776,
you will for some time be engaged in the business of
providing goods for the Indian trade. This will give
you good countenance to your appearing in the
character of a merchant, which we wish you to retain
among the French in general, it being probable that
the Court of France may not like it should be known
publicly that any agent of the colonies is in that
country. When you come to Paris, by delivering
Dr. Franklin's letters to M. LeRay at the Louvre,
and M. Dubourg, you will be introduced to a set of
acquaintances, all friends to America. By conversing
with them you will have a good opportunity of ac-
quiring Parisian French, and you will find in M.
Dubourg a man prudent, faithful, secret, intelli-
gent in affairs, and capable of giving you very safe
advice.
Mission to France 45
Thus the Wethersfield merchant was set adrift
in the gay capital of Louis XVI, with the task of
learning a new language, the customs and ways of
a community decidedly different from, that with
which he had been accustomed, and also of
securing goods indispensable to the cause of the
patriots.
He was to hold out to France the prize of our
commerce and to say :
If we should, as there is a great appearance we shall,
come to a total separation from Great Britain, France
would be looked upon as the power whose friendship
it would be fittest for us to obtain and cultivate. Thp
commercial advantages Britain had enjoyed with the
colonies had contributed greatly to her late wealth and .
importance. It is likely a great part of our commerce
will naturally fall to the share of France, especially
if she favors us in this application, as that will be
a means of gaining and securing the friendship of the
colonies; and that, as our trade is rapidly increasing
with our increase of people, and in a greater pro-
portion, her part of it will be extremely valuable.
These brilliant prospects were not fulfilled.
For years French merchants gained more bank-
ruptcy than profit from the American trade, but
it is well to put the best foot forward, and in a
letter from the Secret Committee of October i,
1776, we read:
46 Silas Deane
If France will join us, in time there is no danger but
the Americans will soon be established as an Independ-
ent Empire, and France, drawing from her the princi-
pal part of those sources of wealth and power which
formerly flowed into Great Britain, will immediately
become the greatest power in Europe.
If Franklin, chairman of the committee, wrote
these alluring sentences he must have been pretty
thoroughly^ converted to the advantages of the
"virgin suitoring" in Europe.
The demands were not modest either.
The supply we at present want [they wrote] is
clothing and arms for twenty-five thousand men, with
. a suitable quantity of ammunition and a hundred
field-pieces ; and that besides, we want great quanti-
ties of linens and woolens with other articles for the
Indian trade, and that the whole, if France should
grant the other supplies, would make a cargo which it
ihight be well to secure by a convoy of two or three
ships of war.
The payment for these stores is rather vaguely
hinted at: for the linens, woolens, and goods for
the Indian trade he was to ask no credit ; and how
this Connecticut Yankee was to be magician
enough to stretch his little store of money, most
of which was in bills, which were afterward re-
turned protested, to cover so large a purchase, it is
Mission to France 47
hard to understand, and a good many of them
have not been paid for yet.
As for the mihtary supphes he was to say:
*'We mean to pay for the same by remittances to
France or through Spain, Portugal, or the French
islands, as soon as our navigation can be protected
by ourselves or France." This cheerful infor-
mation demanded friends both optimistic and
altruistic.
Deane's programme was carefully laid out,
and the words he was to convert into ''Parisian
French" were put into his mouth:
If you should find Vergennes reserved, and not in-
clined to enter into free conversation with you, it
may be well to shorten your visit, request him to con-v
sider what you have proposed, acquaint him with your
place of lodging, that you may stay some time at
Paris, and that knowing how precious his time is, you
do not presume to ask another audience, but that if
he should have any communication for you, you will
upon the least notice immediately wait on him. If at
a future conference he should be more free, and find
a disposition to favor the colonies, it may be proper
to acquaint him that they must necessarily be
anxious to know the disposition of France in certain
points, which, with his permission, you will mention,
such as whether, if the colonies should be forced
to form themselves into an independent state,
France would probably acknowledge them as such,
receive their ambassador, enter into any treaty or
48 Silas Deane
alliance with them, for commerce, or defense, or
both.
It is clear that Franklin, Jay, and Morris had a
'high opinion of the good judgment and diplo-
matic skill of their agent, for he was not only to
secure supplies, without which the war could not
be prosecuted, and do it mainly with promises,
and get the supplies past the watchful English
men-of-war to America, but he was also to be the
entering wedge for a treaty between the old world
empire and the new republic.
In further conferences he was to enlarge on these
topics, and defend the colonies against all calum-
nies. The committee adds :
When your business in France admits of it, it may be
well to go into Holland and visit our agent there,
M. Dumas, conferring with him on subjects that may
promote our interest, and our means of communi-
cation. You will endeavor to procure a meeting
with Mr. Bancroft near London, and desiring him to
come over to him in France or Holland on the score
of old acquaintance. From him you may obtain a
good deal of information of what is now going on in
England. It may be well to remit him a small bill
to defray his expenses in coming to you, and avoid
all political matters in your letters to him.
It was a narrow path in which the inexperienced
commissioner was to walk. Alas, that the lane had
Mission to France 49
such turning as is suggested by the sentence which
follows: ''You will also endeavor to correspond
with Mr. Arthur Lee, agent of the colonies in
London,"
On July 17, Deane was presented to the Minister
of French Affairs, M. Vergennes, whose chief
secretary spoke Enghsh well, and the interview
lasted two hours. Many questions were asked on
both sides: the French, eager to know more about
the colonies; Deane, anxious to learn how the con-
templated Declaration of Independence would be
' received in Europe.
I Vergennes explained that since there was a good
i understanding between Versailles and London,
I France could not openly encourage the shipping
i of warlike stores, but no obstruction of any kind
1 would be given; that Deane was to have a free
hand to carry on any kind of commerce in the
kingdom under the protection of the police and
Vergennes, and he would do well to avoid all Eng-
lishmen as far as possible, as the British ambas-
sador was on the watch. In reply to Deane 's
rose-colored prospects for trade, Vergennes con-
descended to reply: "The people and their cause
are very respectable in the eyes of disinterested
persons, and the interview has been agreeable."
Deane soon learned that in a late reform of the
50 Silas Deane
French army they had shifted their arms to those
of a Hghter kind; the heavy ones, most of which
were the same as new, to the number of seventy
or eighty thousand, lay useless in magazines, with
other military stores in some such proportion, and
that it would be possible to get a supply of these
through some pierchant, without the Ministry
being concerned in the affair.
Then came the tug; with four thousand pounds,
and vague promises, Deane was to buy shiploads
of merchandise, transport it to the seaboard, —
in some instances two hundred miles, — provide
vessels, and get them past the watchful British
cruisers.
On August 1 6, he writes to the Committee of
Correspondence :
Were it possible, I would attempt to paint to you
the heartrending anxiety I have suffered in this time
through a total want of intelligence ; my arrival here,
my name, my lodgings, and many other particulars
have been reported to the British Administration, on
which they sent orders to the British ambassador to
remonstrate in high terms, and to enforce their re-
monstrance they despatched Wedderburn from Lon-
don and Lord Rochford from Holland as persons of
great interest and address here to counteract me.
They have been some time here, and the city swarms
with Englishmen, and as money purchases everything
in this country, I have had, and still have, a most
Mission to France 51
difficult task to avoid their machinations. Not a
coffee-house or theatre or other place of public diver-
sion but swarms with their emissaries. I have seen
many more of the persons in power, and had long con-
versations with them; their intentions are good, and
they appear convinced, but there is wanting a great
and daring genius at their head, which the Count
Maurepas is far from being.
I must again remind you of my situation here : the
bills designed for my use are protested, and expenses
rising fast in consequence of the business on my
hands. The quantity of stores to be shipped will
amount to a large sum ; the very charge on them v/ill
be great, for which I am the only responsible person.
I Burdened as he was with care, Deane was full
j of courage and hope for the colonies, and through
I the summer and autumn of 1776 he devoted
I himself to his mission.
CHAPTER V
DEANE, VERGENNES, AND BEAUMARCHAIS
^ ' IN his early negotiations in France, Deane was
embarrassed by highly recommended friends,
to whom he was to apply. When Franklin was
in Paris years before, he had become acquainted
^ ^ with a Dr. Dubourg, who translated some of
Franklin's writings into French, and manifested an
interest in the welfare of America. Dubourg sent
long letters to Congress, assuring it of the readi-
ness of France to assist the Americans ; and when
Deane, a stranger, reached the brilliant capital,
he availed himself of his letter from Franklin to a
man described as "prudent, faithful, secret, in-
telligent in affairs, and capable of giving very sage
' advice."
"I waited on M. Dubourg and delivered him
Dr. Franklin's letter," Deane wrote, "which gave
the good gentleman the most sincere and real
pleasure."
Dubourg was only too willing to help; he had
been interested in securing supplies for the colonies,
52
Harassed in Europe 53
and he wished to be the intermediary between
Deane and the French Ministry. Deane soon
saw that he was too officious and indiscreet to
be intrusted with important business. Dubourg
talked too much about plans to assist America to
suit Vergennes, who wished to have the govern-
ment completely in the background.
Beaumarchais wrote the minister: "If while
we close the door on one side, the window is open
on the other, surely the secret will escape. Sil-
ence must be imposed on these babblers, who can
do nothing themselves, and who hinder those who
can do something. "
In August, Deane was informed by Gerard, the'
first Secretary of Foreign Affairs, that he could
rely on whatever Beaumarchais should engage in
commercial supplies. In vain Dubourg remon-
strated against the decision, the programme was
settled, the French government was willing to
open its arsenals to help America, but the aid was
to be given through the agency and bookkeeping of
the fictitious house of Roderique, Hortalez & Co.,
the head of which was Caron de Beaumarchais.
One would suppose that the French govern-
ment would have chosen a micrchant or speculator
for the task, rather than an author, who, Dubourg
bitterly said, was famous for large promises and for
54 Silas Deane
his carelessness in money matters; but the result
proved the wisdom of the choice, though it ruined
the brilliant and devoted friend of the colonies.
The famous author of Figaro was bom in 1732,
in the shop of his father, Caron, a jeweller in the
rue St. Denis. At twenty, he invented an im-
provement in the escapement in watches, and
soon styled himself ''Watchmaker of the King."
By selling watches to courtiers at Versailles, and
jostling against nobles and officials, he got together
money enough to buy a little office, that of Con-
troller of the Pantry of the King's Household, and
he marched with the procession that carried the
meat to the royal table; and he had the honor
of placing some of the dishes before the king with
his own hands; and then he stood watching the
repast, with sword at his side. His next step
upward was to marry a widow, a lady older than
himself, and wealthy; and he took the name of
Beaumarchais from a small fief belonging to his
wife.
In 1 761, M. de Beaumarchais, as he was now
called, bought for eighty-five thousand livres an
office of Secretary to the King, which imposed no
duties, but conferred the rank of nobility. When
taunted with being a plebeian, he replied that he
could easily prove his nobility, for he held the
Harassed in Europe 55
parchment that conferred it, and a receipt for the
money that paid for it. That parchment did not
destroy his democratic sympathy with his brothers
in America, who were struggHng against tyranny ;
and the author of Le Mariage de Figaro or-
ganized concerts, dipped into speculation, plunged
into law, visited England, where he first became
interested in American affairs through conversa-
tions with men prominent in opposition to Lord
North.
Arthur Lee, a member of the Lee family of
Virginia, was then studying law at the Temple.
He, too, was as gifted a talker as Beaumarchais,
and when the two men came together, the atmos-
phere was flavored and tinged with roses. We
can hardly imagine that either believed all that
the other said about his respective people, but
Beaumarchais came to believe that the American
insurgents were of surpassing power, and Lee was
convinced that France would help the colonists'
to the limit of her strength.
Arthur Lee reported to Virginia that France
would furnish fr^e million livres' worth of arms
and ammunition to the United States. This pro-
duct of Lee's imagination and reckless tongue
made no end of trouble.
Beaumarchais returned to Paris enthusiastic
56 Silas Deane
in the cause of America, and suggested to the
. French government the advisabihty of lending
aid to the colonies. In September, 1775, he
submitted to the king a memoir, in which he
, predicted the triumph of America.
Durand, in New Materials on the American
i Revolution, says that Beaumarchais told Lee,
' in 1775, that he was trying to persuade Louis
XVI^and Lee wrote the Secret Committee that
. in consequence of his active procedure with the
French ambassador at London, "the Count de
Vergennes has sent a secret agent to inform me
that France could not think of going to war with
England, but he is ready to send five million livres
in arms and munitions of war, by way of St.
Domingo, to the United States. "
Not one word of this was true. Vergennes had
not only not sent an agent to Arthur Lee, but
Beaumarchais' frequent applications to the minis-
ter for secret aid in the shape of money and arms
had been and were steadily refused. Not until
months afterward was Vergennes ready.
On returning to Paris, Beaumarchais corre-
sponded with Lee and, June 12, 1776, he wrote:
"The difficulties I have found in my negotiations
^ with the minister have determined me to form a
company, which will enable munitions and powder
Harassed in Europe 57
to be transmitted to your friend (Congress) on
condition of his returning tobacco to St. Francis. "
The youthful Louis XVI was not easily con-
vinced, and if the advice of Turgot, the greatest
statesman of France, had been followed, America
would have received no encouragement. Turgot,
who was Minister of Finance for two years from
the summer of 1774, urged neutrality, retrench-
ment, reform, and the quiet development of
France, wasted by the fearful Seven Years' War. f
Maurepas, the aged head of the Cabinet, was
without vigor, but Vergennes, the Minister of
Foreign Affairs, adopted the cause of the colonies.
Though a cold, calculating man, he was the most
powerful friend America had in Europe through
the war.
As a statesman, Vergennes was not in the same
class as Turgot, but he was a man of decided
ability. The Due de Choiseul, Prime Minister
of Louis XV, said of Vergennes : " The Compte de
Vergennes has something to say against whatever
is proposed to him, but he never finds any diffi-
culty in carrying out his instructions. Were we to
order him to send us the vizier's head, he would
write that it was dangerous, but the head would
come."
This powerful friend of America, more than any
58 Silas Deane
one else, brought the king to our side, though.
Sparks says, it was largely due to Beaumarchais
that the king was persuaded. On December
7, 1775, Beaumarchais wrote a letter, which was
given to Louis XVI by Vergennes, urging him to
assist the United States. That letter is said to
have turned the scale.
Vergennes was neither a courtier nor a selfishly
ambitious man: his habits were simple, clear-
headed, and trustworthy. Jefferson says : " I found
him as honorable, as frank, as easy of access to
reason as any man I have ever done business with. "
Said James Madison: '^He is the great minister
of European affairs, cool, reserved in political con-
versation, free and familiar on other subjects. "
Vergennes believed that the loss of the colonies
would so seriously cripple England that she could
no longer disturb France. He also felt the wave
of republicanism which was sweeping over France
in sympathy with the insurgent spirit across the
Atlantic. He likewise believed that the independ-
ence of the colonies would greatly advance the
.commerce of France.
When the ice in Vergennes did not take fire on
the reception of Beaumarchais' memorial, the
impetuous dramatist wrote again on the following
day, complaining that the Council had taken no
Harassed in Europe 59
action. "All the wisdom of the world," he
wrote, ''will not enable a man to decide on the
policy he should pursue if he receives no answers
to his letters. Am I an agent who may prove use-
ful to this country, or am I a deaf and dumb
traveler?"
In December, he addressed another long memo-
rial to his sovereign, who had maintained silence.
He insisted that Louis owed it to his people to
weaken their ancient foe, and ended his harangue
with the pious prayer, "May the guardian angel
of the state incline the heart and mind of your
Majesty."
Two months later, he sent another long com-
munication to the crown, declaring that the quarrel -
between England and America would divide the
world and change the system of Europe, and
every person should consider how the impending
separation would work for his own gain or loss.
This letter discloses the hand of the scheming
Arthur Lee :
A secret representative of the colonies in London,
discouraged by the failure of his efforts through me
to obtain from the French ministers supplies of
powder and munitions of war, said to-day: "Has
France absolutely decided to refuse us all succor,
and thus become the victim of England and the
laughing-stock of Europe? We offer France in return
^
6o Silas Deane
for secret assistance a treaty of commerce, which
will secure to her for a number of years after the peace
all the benefits which for a century have enriched
England."
Beaumarchais proposed to the king the scheme
of which he spoke to Arthur Lee, a scheme by
which France could aid the colonies and not be-
come involved in war with England. He said:
" If your Majesty has not a better man to employ,
I will undertake the enterprise and no one shall
be compromised. My zeal will better supply my
lack of capacity, than the ability of another could
replace my zeal." The plan was acceptable to
Vergennes, who in May wrote to the French
ambassador at Madrid that the Idng had decided
to lend the Americans a million livres, though
he would hardly venture to furnish arms and
munitions of war; and it would be done in the
name of a commercial firm, which would color
its zeal by the appearance of a desire to engage in
the American trade.
The prospect of repayment was slender, for the
company would furnish securities — "to tell the
truth, not very binding. "
The Spanish king promised to send another
million livres.
^ With the powerful backing of Vergennes,
\,
Harassed in Europe 6i
Beaumarchais formed his imaginary house of
Roderique, Hortalez & Co., and through the
Spanish, high-sounding, mythical firm, supplies
were forwarded from the French arsenals to the
insurgents in America.
To supply money above that furnished by the
state, Beaumarchais planned a speculation on his
own account, which might prove profitable, if his
ships were not captured by the English, and he
could get his pay.
On June lo, 1776, the French government
advanced a million livres, and Beaumarchais
executed the receipt, and two months later an-
other million arrived from Spain.
Early in July, a new actor appeared in Paris,
Silas Deane, with a commission from Congress to
purchase supplies to be paid for by cargoes shipped
from the colonies. On applying to Vergennes, he
was referred to Beaumarchais, who offered to ship
merchandise to the credit of Congress to the
amount of three million livres.
Deane wrote Franklin and Morris on August 15 :
I find M. Beaumarchais, as I before hinted, possesses
the entire confidence of the Ministry; he is a man of
wit and genius, and a considerable writer on comic
and political subjects; all my supplies are to come
through his hands.
62 Silas Deane
On August 1 8, 1776, Beaumarchais wrote the
/■Committee of Congress :
T ^ An extensive commercial house has been formed
solely for the purpose of serving you in Europe, to
,^ supply you with necessaries of every sort, clothes, linen,
\ ' powder, ammunition, muskets, cannon, or even gold
\ for the payment of your troops, and in general every-
- -^^^/thing that can be useful for the honorable war in
which you are engaged.
<lie gives them to understand that return must be
r / made. He says: '* I request of you, gentlemen, to
send me next spring ten or twelve thousand hogs-
heads, or more if you can, of tobacco from Virginia
/ of the best quality." He also suggests that he
could handle cargoes of salted fish.
Lee's officious and imaginative talk about the
supplies being a gift made a deeper impression on
Congress than Deane's and Beaumarchais' appeal
-for payment, and the Secret Committee never sent
any reply to Roderique, Hortalez & Co., though
they received the supplies, and put off paying the
unlucky firm.
In February, Beaumarchais sent a letter to the
king, in which he showed that if a million livres
could be furnished Hortalez & Co., and tobacco
be promptly received in payment and sold at
Beaumarchais' romancing prices, by the time the
Harassed in Europe 63
king had invested a second time the profits of
the scheme, the Americans would receive two
millions in gold and seven millions in powder and
this would increase in geometrical proportion, using
three as the multiple. J
The lago in all this mixture of confusion and-
depravity was Arthur Lee, the poHtical enemy
of Beaumarchais and Deane, who was determined
to advance himself, though he ruined every one
who stood in his way.
When Deane arrived in Paris, and Beau-
marchais no longer communicated with Arthur
Lee,
The latter [says Sparks] was disappointed and en-
raged against Deane, no less than against Beaumar-
chais. To avenge himself on both, Lee wrote the^
Committee of Congress that the two men had agreed,
to deceive at once the French and the American
governments, by changing what the French minister
meant to be a gratuitive present into a commercial
operation.
De Lomenie says he has found among Beau-
marchais' papers proofs that the shipments were
carefully inspected by American agents, and
Deane and Beaumarchais were surprised that
Virginia and Maryland tobacco did not arrive.
Neither took account of Arthur Lee.
The headquarters of the flourishing and ill-
64 Silas Deane
starred firm of Roderique & Co. were in the
Faubourg du Temple, in a large house in which the
Dutch ambassadors had lived. Many clerks were
installed there, and the author of Figaro was to
be found there early and late, overseeing the
activity of the clerks with energy, if not with
business methods.
One would not use the term "hard-headed" in
speaking of a merchant who wrote in business
letters such sentences as these :
Your deputies, gentlemen, can find in me a sure
friend, and asylum in my house, money in my coffers,
and any means of facilitating their operations. I
promise you that my indefatigable zeal shall never
be wanting to clear up difficulties, soften prohibitions,
and facilitate the operations of a commerce which
your advantage, more than my own, has made me
undertake.
Of the activities of Beaumarchais, we shall speak
more in detail in the next chapter. We wish we
were not obliged to record the sequel to this al-
truistic and enthusiastic endeavor. No tobacco
was sent by the colonies to the Hortalez firm.
Its agents at Nantes and Boulogne strained their
eyes to see the ships, with thousands of hogs-
heads of the best Virginia tobacco, coming up
the harbor. Beaumarchais received not even
Harassed in Europe 65
a letter acknowledging the receipt of the sup- s,
plies. In October, he wrote: "There is no news
from America and no tobacco either. This is
depressing, but depression is a long way from
discouragement.'*
The mischievous and pernicious activity of
Arthur Lee was bearing fruit. Lee, who seemed
incapable of telling the truth, kept writing Con-
gress that the mimitions of war were not to be
paid for. "M. Vergennes, " he wrote, "has re-
peatedly assured us that no return was expected ^
for the cargo sent by Beaumarchais. This gentle-
man is not a merchant ; he is known to be a politi-
cal agent employed by the Court of France."
Even if France had advanced two hundred
thousand dollars, the supplies sent by Beau-
marchais amounted to several times that amount ;
and when Lee said the supplies were a gift of
France, he lied and he knew it, and he knew also'
that when he suggested that the demands of
Beaumarchais and Deane would fill their pockets
with illegal 'gains, his lies were still more fiendish,
for he was plotting the ruin of two honest and
devoted men, whose earnestness and fidelity his
miserable soul could not appreciate.
Congress was perplexed and, being short of
funds, did nothing. It is hard enough to pay
r^ .
66 Silas Deane
one's honest debts out of a full pocket; the pay-
ment of a questionable claim causes a beggar
little worry.
Franklin had little confidence in the Roderique,
Hortalez & Co., and declared to Deane that he
would have nothing to do with any transactions
arranged before his arrival. When Coudray,
on reaching America, was furious against Beau-
marchais, Congress was puzzled.
Imagine [says De Lomenie] the effect on sober
Yankees, nearly all of whom had taken part in com-
mercial transactions before the war, receiving cargoes
almost always shipped clandestinely in the night,
with invoices more or less correct, and the whole, with
no other advices than the somewhat hasty missives
over the romantic signature of Roderique & Co. in
which Beaumarchais mingled together enthusiastic
protestations, an unlimited tender of services, politi-
cal advice, and demands for tobacco and codfish.
Shrewd Yankees were naturally led to think that
such a person, so ardent and fantastic, if he really
existed, was playing a commercial comedy, un-
derstood between him and the French authorities,
and that they might use his supplies, read his
amplifications, and dispense with sending tobacco.
The brilliant firm of Hortalez & Co. was in dire
straits. Beaumarchais extracted another million
from the depleted French treasury, but that did
Harassed in Europe 67
not cover the bill. Beaumarchais wrote re-
peatedly for payment in tobacco, indigo, anything.
Arthur Lee kept repeating his rascally lies, assur- -
ing Congress that the demands were parts of a
French comedy, or attempts to cheat Congress,
and defeat the generous programme of Louis. At
last, a cargo of rice and indigo reached France,
which the envoys said was intended for them, but
Beaumarchais begged so hard, he secured it,
though it was worth but a hundred and fifty
thousand livres
You will see [he wrote his agent in America] that
there is a great difference between this drop of water
and the ocean of my debts. I am contending with
obstacles of every nature, but I strti^gle with all my
might, and I hope to conquer with patience, credit, and
money. The enormous losses to which all this puts
me appears to affect no one. The minister is inflexible;
even the deputies at Passy claim the honor of annoy-
ing me — me, the best friend of their country.
In December, 1777, Beaumarchais sent M.
Francy to America to see if he could get a settle-
ment of past accounts. "Be like me, " he charged
him; ''despise small considerations and small
resentments ; I have enlisted you in a magnificent
cause."
As the result of Francy's journey the treasuries
were put on a surer basis — at least, on paper.
68 Silas Deane
A carefully drawn contract was made, but the
bills remained unpaid.
An appeal was made to Vergennes, asking his
advice.
We do not know [the Committee said] who the
persons are who constitute the house of Roderique &
Co. ; but Congress has ever understood, and so have
the people in America in general, that they were under
obligations to his Majesty's good will for the great
part of the merchandise and warlike stores heretofore
furnished under the firm name of Roderique, Hortalez
& Co. ; we cannot discover that any written contract
was ever made between Congress or any agent of
theirs and the house of Roderique & Co., nor do we
know of any living witness or any other evidence,
whose testimony can ascertain for us, who the persons
are who constitute the house of Roderique & Co.,
or what were the terms upon which the merchandise
and munitions of war were supplied, neither as to the
price, nor the time, nor the conditions of payment.
We apprehend that the United States hold them-
selves under obligation to his Majesty for all those
supplies, and we are sure that it is their wish and
their determination to discharge the obligation as soon
as Providence shall put it in their power. In the mean-
time we are ready to settle and liquidate the accounts
according to our instructions, at any time and in any
manner, which his Majesty and your Excellency
shall point out to us.
In reply to this beautiful letter Vergennes did
not and could not make any clear statement.
Harassed in Europe 69
He could not acknowledge any responsibility for
Roderique & Co. in furnishing munitions of war to
America, while England and France were at peace ;
he wrote the newly appointed minister to the
United States:
The king has not furnished anything, he has simply
allowed M. de Beaumarchais to provide himself with
what he wanted in the arsenals, on condition of re-
placing what he took; and that for the rest, I will
gladly interpose in order that they may not be pressed
for the payment of the military supplies.
In January, 1779, John Jay, president of
j Congress, extended an eloquent vote of thanks
I to Beaumarchais as follows:
I
I Sir, the Congress of the United States, sensible of
j your exertions in their favor, present you with their
( thanks, and assure you of their regard.
i They lament the inconvenience you have suffered
I by the great advances made in support of these states.
' Circumstances have prevented a compliance with
their wishes; but they will take the most effectual
j measures in their power to discharge the debt due
I you.
I The liberal sentiments and extensive views, which
could alone dictate a conduct like yours, are con-
spicuous in your actions, and adorn your character.
While with great talents you served your Prince,
you have gained the esteem of this infant Republic,
and will receive the united applause of the New
World.
^o Silas Deane
This must have been very gratifying to a man
who enjoyed applause as did Beaumarchais, and
in December he sent over another fleet laden with
arms and supplies; he also equipped a man-of-
war named Fier Roderique, and sent it to guard
the merchantmen, at his own expense, and to his
personal loss.
The United States did make some payment, not
in tobacco, which could have been turned into
money, but it remitted two million and a half of
livres in bills, payable three years in the future.
These scanty promises of a precarious govern-
ment would not have been paid at all, had not
Dr. B'ranklin insisted upon it.
At last Beaumarchais' money and zeal gave
out, and the rich nobles, who had helped him,
showed little indulgence. In 1781, Silas Deane
sought the settlement of Beaumarchais' claims,
for Deane never wavered in the declaration that
the supplies should be paid for.
In November, 1776, Deane wrote Congress:
I never should have completed what I have done but
for the indefatigable and spirited exertions of M.
Beaumarchais, to whom the United States are on
every account greatly indebted; more so than to any
other person on this side of the water; he is greatly
in advance of stores, clothing, and the like, and there-
Harassed in Europe 71
fore I am confident that you will make him the earliest
and most ample remittance.
Deane went over the accounts and found the
balance due Beaumarchais was three million six
hundred thousand livres, but Lee's lies and
Deane 's calamities furnished excuses for Congress
to postpone Beaumarchais' claims.
In 1787, with accounts ten years old, Beau-
marchais wrote Congress complaining of the
ingratitude of a powerful nation, and it was
voted to refer the account to Arthur Lee, who,^
following his false genius, and consistent with
his willingness to ruin Beaumarchais, declared
that the goods furnished by Roderique & Co. were
gifts, and that Beaumarchais owed the United
States almost two million livres.
In 1793, Alexander Hamilton examined the
claims and set the sum due M. Beaumarchais at
two million two hundred and eighty thousand livres
at least, and possibly a million more, but Congress^
made no appropriation.
Ruined by the French Revolution, Beaumarchais
fled to Hamburg, and from his garret and poverty,
ill and broken-hearted, he wrote: "Americans,
I served you with untiring zeal. I have thus far
received no return for this but vexation and dis-
appointment, and I die your creditor. On leaving -
72 Silas Deane
f sthis world I must ask you to give what you owe
me to my daughter as a dowry. **
y ' Twenty-nine years later, after repeated en-
deavors for justice, Beaumarchais' daughter
went to Washington and solicited payment of the
' prosperous nation, and eleven years later, fifty-
seven years after the debt was incurred, the heirs
were told they would receive twenty-five cents
on a dollar, if they would sign a receipt in full.
They did so to the shame of the young Republic !
Such was the treatment of a man of whom
Deane wrote Congress in November, 1776:
I cannot in a letter do full justice to M. Beaumarchais
for his great address and assiduity in our cause ; I can
only say he appears to have undertaken it on great
and liberal principles, and has in the pursuit made it
his own. His interest and influence, which are great,
have been exerted to the utmost in the cause of the
United States, and I hope the consequences will equal
his wishes.
The consequences of what he did for America
have more than equaled his expectations, but
what can we say of his share in the prosperity,
to achieve which he gave such altruistic, such
unstinted, devotion?
1
CHAPTER VI
/
DEANE FORWARDS MILITARY SUPPLIES
"IV/HEN Deane presented to Vergennes on
^^ July 17, 1776, his credentials as agent for
America, he was ndt authorized to hint that the
'colonies aimed at independency, though the
Declaration of Independence had been issued
nearly two weeks before he reached Paris. The
only ground of his appeal was that no people
should be taxed without their consent.
That France had been pitched on for the first appli-
cation, from an opinion that if we should, as there is a
great appearance we shall, come to a total separation
from Great Britain, it is likely a great part of our
commerce would naturally fall to her share. That the
supply we at present want is clothing and arms for
twenty-five thousand men, with a suitable quantity
of ammunition and a hundred field- pieces.
The French Ministry evaded all responsibility,
but told Deane he must do all business with
Roderique, Hortalez & Co. — in other words,
with Beaumarchais ; and the negotiations began
73
74 Silas Deane
with the promise of remittance within eight
months of the time of the deHvery of the goods.
On August 2, Deane wrote the Committee of
Congress: '^A number of gentlemen of rank and
fortune, who have seen service and have good
character, are desirous of serving the United
Colonies and have applied ; pray let me have orders
on this subject. " Though sharply criticized later
for sending over so many French engineers and
officers, it is significant that his request for in-
structions was unheeded, and he was left entirely
to his own judgment.
Deane was especially impressed with M. Cou-
dray "who had the character of the first engineer
of the kingdom," Deane said, "and his manners
and disposition will, I am confident, be highly
pleasing to you, as he is a plain, modest, active,
sensible man, perfectly averse to frippery and
parade."
In November, Deane wrote :
M. de Coudray, who has the character of being one
of the best officers of artillery in Europe, has been in-
defatigable in our service, and I hope that the terms
I have made with him will not be thought exorbitant
as he was a principal means of engaging the stores.
.The letters of Deane are full of anxiety. On
July 20, he asked Beaumarchais for two hundred
Forwards Supplies for Army 75
brass cannon, and arms and clothing for twenty-
five thousand men, and desires still more. Four
days later he wrote :
The fate of my country depends on the arrival of these
suppHes. I cannot be too anxious on the subject,
nor is there any danger or exposure so great, but what
must be hazarded, if necessary, to effect so capital
and important a subject.
Two days afterward Beaumarchais wrote :
I do not think so large a train of artillery as you
desire can leave this country without a chief and offi-
cers, for among a nation as peaceful as the Americans,
all knowledge of the tactics must be unknown, and the
proper management of a train of artillery is the most
difficult branch of the tactics. You ought not, there-
fore, to hesitate in adopting Mr. Arthur Lee's former
plan of sending engineers and officers, particularly
officers of artillery. If you approve of the plan, it
shall be my duty to tempt the best ones of their class,
especially soldiers of fortune. Here there should be
no effort at economy.
Coudray was a striking sample of the soldiers of
fortune engaged. Deane wrote the Secret Com-
mittee that, dissatisfied with an idle life, he was
willing to be advanced from his position as an
adjutant-general in the French service, to be
general of artillery in the American forces, with
the rank of major-general.
76 Silas Deane
It is clear that the French were determined to
lump officers and supplies, and apparently Deane
had no alternative, he must take both or neither,
for he adds :
Considering the importance of having two hundred
pieces of brass cannon with every necessary article
for twenty-five thousand men provided, with an able
and experienced general at the head, warranted by
the Minister of the Court, with a number of fine
and spirited young officers in his train, and all with-
out advancing one shilling, is too tempting an offer
for me to hesitate about, though I own there is a
silence in my instructions.
In our judgment of Deane for sending over so
many officers as he did, we are also to remember
how eager they were to come. Franklin wrote
to Lovell, October 17, 1777:
You can have no conception of the arts and interest
made use of to recommend and engage us to recom-
-fnend very indifferent persons. The opportunity is
boundless; the numbers we refuse incredible, which,
if you knew, you would applaud us for, and on that
account excuse the few we have been prevailed upon
to introduce to you.
On September 11, Deane signed an agreement
with General Coudray to have the pay of major-
general, and wrote, "He will exert himself in
despatching the artillery and stores agreed on."
Forwards Supplies for Army 77
Coudray was a disappointment: the noble
qualities Deane had discovered in him were only
skin-deep. He set sail in the Amphitrite with a
large cargo of stores, but soon the vessel returned
to port by order of the officious Coudray and
against the protest of the captain.. The officers
complained of a lack of livestock. Evidently the
gallant general, Coudray, found the menu less ap-
petizing than in the Paris banquet halls. Deane
wrote bitterly :
The consequences have been bad. This I must
say: He acted an unwise and injudicious part in
returning into port; he gave a fresh alarm to the
Ministry and occasioned a second counter-order.
Indeed, Mons. de Coudray appeared to have solely
in view his own ease, safety, and emolument. He-
returned quite to Paris, without the least ground that
I can find for his conduct, and has laid his scheme to
pass to America in a ship without artillery, which is
absurd, as I engaged with this man solely on account
of the artillery he was to assist in procuring and
attending in person. His desertion of this charge,
with his other conduct, makes me wish that he may
not arrive in America at all.
Coudray finally brought his officious and con-
ceited presence across the Atlantic. Then came
troubles innumerable; the arrangement was that
he should command the artillery ; there sprang up
>
78 Silas Deane
a plentiful crop of resignations: Coudray would
have everything or nothing. His inflexible will
paid no regard to the situation. The difficulty
was relieved when Congress created for him the
office of inspector of the artillery with the rank
of major-general. Coudray refused this, and en-
tered the army as a volunteer, with the rank of
captain; but, by what Franklin called "a happy
accident, " on September i6, 1777, he was drowned
in the Schuylkill, and the rest of his corps returned
to France.
More conspicuous still was the episode con-
cerning Comte de BrogHe. The following is what
Deane wrote the Committee of Secret Corre-
spondence December 6, 1776, on a matter which
brought sharp criticism upon the head of the
writer :
I submit one thought to you, whether, if you could
engage a great general of the highest character in
Europe, such for instance as Prince Ferdinand, Mar-
shal Broglie, or others of an equal rank, to take
the lead of your armies, such a step would not be
politic, as it would give a character and a credit to your
niilitary, and strike perhaps a greater panic in our
enemy. I only suggest the thought, and leave you to
confer with Baron de Kalb on the subject at large.
The candidate for the position of commander-in-
chief of the American forces was Comte de Broglie,
Forwards Supplies for Army 79
who belonged to a family which had furnished two
marshals to France. He was a soldier of experi-
ence and energy, and it is not strange that when
his cause was urged by Baron de Kalb, Deane,
overburdened with work and perplexity, and
shouldering alone the task of commission, unaided
by advice from Congress, should have listened
with sympathy. On November 6, he wrote the
Committee :
Comte de Broglie, who commanded the army of
France in the last war, did me the honor to call on
me twice yesterday with an officer who served as his
head quartermaster-general and has now a regiment in
the service. He is desirous of engaging in the service
of the United States. I can by no means let slip the
opportunity of engaging a person of so much experi-
ence, who is by every one recognized as one of the
bravest and most skillful officers in the kingdom.
Just a month later, Deane proposed to the
Secret Committee that De Broglie be engaged to
take the lead in the army, "I only suggest the
thought, " wrote Deane, "and leave you to confer
with Baron de Kalb." Ten days later De Kalb
argues that a military leader of great European
reputation would be worth twenty thousand men.
It is not strange that Deane was impressed with
the idea that a man brought up in war, with such
a reputation as Broglie, would be of great value to
8o Silas Deane
the American cause. Deane was having a hard
time.
Well-nigh embarrassed to death [he writes], with
applications of officers to go out to America, bills
protested, credit poor in Paris, and worse in Amster-
dam, reports of the disaster on Long Island, the
burning of New York, and of negotiations with Eng-
land rendering the French Ministry wary and distant,
no orders, advices, or remittance.
On December 4, he wrote Robert Morris that
in eight months he had received but two letters
from Congress. "Every one here judges," he
writes, "you are negotiating, or giving up the
cause, and the British ambassador and agents
roundly assert it."
His anxiety and distress were greater than at
any other time in his life. In the midst of all this
wearing, perplexing, discouraging medley, we
should not criticize too severely the man for mildly
suggesting the project of securing a commander-in-
chief of European reputation for the American
forces. Washington had a high reputation, and
Deane had great respect for his ability, but he still
had his spurs to win. We smile with pitying
compassion at the folly of displacing the majestic
George Washington with a little Frenchman,
whose head stood erect, as one contemporary
Forwards Supplies for Army 8i
said, *'like a bantam cock"; his sparkling eyes,
when he was excited, were like a volcano pouring
forth fire; with the fame of the Seven Years' War
resting on his pompous shoulders. De Kalb went
over to America as advance agent of this fierce
little second-rate officer. De Kalb had the utmost
confidence in De Broglie and submitted to him a
project, of which he said that it "would perhaps
decide the success of the cause of liberty in the
United States. Congress should ask of the king
of France some one, who would become their civil
and military chief, the temporary generalissimo of
the new republic. " De Kalb speaks considerately
of Washington ; thinks he has done fairly well.
But my plan is [he says] to have a man whose name
and reputation alone would discourage the enemy.
Many young noblemen would follow him as volunteers
for the sake of serving and distinguishing themselves
under his eyes. The nobility, by its interest at Court,
by its credit, or the management of its friends and
kinsmen, could decide the king in favor of a war
with England .... Such a leader, with the assist-
ants he would choose, would be worth twenty thou-
sand men, and would double the value of the American
troops. This man may be found, I think I have
found him, and I am sure that once he is known, he
will unite the suffrages of the public, of all sensible
men, of all military men, and I venture to say of all
Europe.
82 Silas Deane
We are amused at the suggestion that follows
that this fiery little fountain of emotion and
egotism needed to be wooed like a coy maiden.
De Kalb continues:
The question is to obtain his acceptance, which as I
think can only be accomplished by loading him with
sufficient honors to satisfy his ambition, as by nam-
ing him Field Marshal Generalissimo, and giving him
a considerable sum of ready money for his numerous
children; the cares of whom he would have to forego
for some time during his sojourn beyond the seas, to
be equivalent to them in case of the loss of their father,
and by giving him all the powers necessary for the
good of the service.
De Kalb planned to go over to America on the
Amphitrite in December, with the promise of the
rank of major-general together with twelve thou-
sand livres for expenses; and his great mission
was to convince the rustics in America that a man
of elevated rank and large experience called
generalissimo, with supreme authority over the
army, and a large pension for life, would splendidly
replace the provincial Washington, and reimburse
by a hundred-fold all the expenses of the costly
venture.
It is unfair to shoulder all this variegated bubble
upon the worried and overworked Deane; De
Kalb was the prime mover in behalf of his modest
Forwards Supplies for Army 83
little chief. "I leave this unsigned," adds De
Kalb; "you know who I am. "
Broglie had remained quietly at his country
seat at Ruffec, while De Kalb was working so
faithfully for tke prosperity of America, by plead-
ing the interests of its mighty deliverer. In the
spring of 1777, De Kalb embarked with Lafayette
on the Victory, and when he reached America
all his drearily mists of delusion vanished, after
he had entered the presence of Washington, and
had seen the greatness of his character, the breadth
and force of his mind, his courage and his success.
De Kalb was shrewd enough to see that the
colonies had no need of a brilliant French officer
to give them the victory. In September, 1777, he
wrote to General Broglie :
If I return to Europe, it is largely on account of the
impossibility of succeeding in the great project with
which I occupied myself with so much pleasure. M.
de Valfort will tell you that the proposition is im-
practicable. It would be regarded as a crying injustice
against Washington, and an affront to the honor of
the country. He does every day more than could be
expected from any general in the world in the same
circumstances, by his natural and acquired capa-
city, his bravery, good sense, uprightness and honesty,
to keep up the spirits of the army and people, and
I look upon him as the sole defender of his country's
cause.
§4 Silas Deane
Perhaps the most distinguished man whom
Deane commissioned was Lafayette, of whom
Deane wrote the Secret Committee of Congress :
, "Lafayette not thinking that he can obtain leave
of his family to pass the seas till he can go as a
general officer, I have thought I could not better
serve my country than by granting him the rank of
miajor-general. "
The man who probably did more for our cause
than any one else whom Deane sent from Europe
was Baron Steuben, whose 'coming overbalances
many a blunder in commissioning some gay
soldier of fortune.
On September 3, 1777, Deane wrote Morris of
Steuben, who had visited Paris two months before,
with all the weight of twenty years of experience
under Frederick the Great, part of the time
^ quartermaster-general and aide-de-camp to the
king of Prussia. Steuben carried in his pocket
letters from Prince Henry of Prussia, and wished
to embark immediately, but finding no oppor-
vtunity, returned to Germany; urged by his friends
he went again to Paris, and although Franklin
did not favor the plan, Deane urged the German
veteran to go to America without delay. It was
at a time when complaints were coming back to
Paris of the swarm of French officers, who had
Forwards Supplies for Army 85
embarrassed more than helped the cause of the
insurgents, but Deane recognized the superior
worth of Steuben, and recommended him to Con-
gress and to Washington. Deane's judgment was
justified. No other officers who came to us did
more than Steuben to perfect our army. He was
made inspector-general of the army, with the
rank of major-general ; introduced German tactics,
organized the military staff, and trained the troops
in the use of the bayonet.
On September 17, 1776, Deane wrote to a
French firm that the total silence of his friends in
America had well-nigh distracted him, and de-
ranged his whole proceedings; however, he was
tired of waiting, and must proceed to order sul-
phur, saltpetre, and powder. The same day, he
wrote to Robert Morris that he should forward in
October, clothing for twenty thousand men,
thirty thousand fusils, one hundred tons of powder,'
twenty-four brass mortars, with shells, shot, lead,
etc.
On September 30, he explains to Morris his
embarrassment in ordering large stores of military
suppHes without a shilling of money, exclusive of
a fund of forty thousand pounds originally in-
tended for other affairs. He writes: "To let slip
or to let pass such an opportunity for want of
/
86 Silas Deane
ready money would be unfortunate, and yet that
was taking from a fund before deficient." He
adds a little touch which shows the domestic side
of his life: "Pray forward the trifles I am sending
to my little deserted family as soon as received.
God bless and prosper America, is the prayer of
every one here, to which I say. Amen and Amen. "
Although the Declaration of Independence had
been issued in America nearly three months be-
fore, there had been no official announcement of
the fact to France. On October i, Deane wrote
the Secret Committee that the situation was
critical, the ministry uneasy at the absolute silence
■from America and the bold assertions of the
British Ambassador, together with the declaration
of a General Hopkins of Maryland, who pretended
to be in Deane 's secrets, who insisted that the
stores would be used against France. This had
brought the French to apprehend, not only a
settlement between England _ and America, but
the most serious consequences to the French
West India Islands should the colonies again
unite with Great Britain. He said :
For me, alas, I had nothing left but to make the
most positive assertions that no accommodation could
or would take place, and to pledge myself in the
strongest possible manner that thus would turn out
Forwards Supplies for Army 87
the event, yet so strong were their apprehensions that
an order was issued to suspend furnishing me with
stores. Our friend Beaumarchais exerted himself,
and in a day or two obtained the orders to be counter-
manded. For Heaven's sake, if you mean to have
any connection with this kingdom, be more assiduous
in getting your letters here. It would be too tedious
to recount what I have met with. I do not mention
a single difficulty with one complaining thought for
myself: my all is devoted, and I am happy in being
so far successful. The stores are collecting, and I hope-
will be embarked by the middle of the month. It is
consistent with a political letter to urge the remit-
tance of the fourteen thousand hogsheads of tobacco
written for formerly, in part payment of these stores :
if you make it twenty thousand the public will be
gainers.
Evidently Deane did not think of the goods as a
present.
A week later, Deane wrote the Committee that
the three months' silence after the Declaration of
the Fourth of July had given him inexpressible
anxiety, and more than once came near frustrating
his whole endeavors, for it had been expected in
Paris that the next step after the independence
would be an appeal for the friendship of France.
He again calls for twenty thousand hogsheads of
tobacco and suggests that the frigates could dis-
charge their cargo at Bordeaux, and refit there
88 Silas Deane
as cruisers to prey on British commerce and pillage
the west coast of England and Scotland. ^
Through the autumn of 1776, Deane was bur-
dened with incessant anxiety in his endeavors to
get the war materials to Havre de Grace and
Nantes, and then away. He was overwhelmed by
offers from French officers, eager for advanced office
and increased pay. He wrote: "Had I ten ships
f'could fill them all with passengers for America. I
am well-nigh harassed with applications of officers.
^ Baron de Kalb, I consider an important acquisi-
tion, as are many other officers, whose character I
stay not to particularize. "
On December 3, he wrote the Committee: "I
"shipped forty thousand tons of saltpetre, two
- hundred thousand pounds of powder via Marti-
nique, and one hundred barrels via Amsterdam. "
By the same mail he wrote John Jay that the
Declaration of Independence had been presented
in Court, and it was well received.
Thomas Morris, the wayward brother of Robert,
added much to the care and worry of Deane.
Thomas was in London, and his able and powerful
brother, Robert, anxious to help him in his career,
had given him a financial position in London
under the supervision of Deane. Writing to
Robert Morris, December 4, 1777, Deane says:
Forwards Supplies for Army 89
I am afraid, from good advices from London, that
pleasure has got too strong a hold on him. On his
arrival in London, a respectable friend wrote me that
the company he dipped at once into was so dissolute
and expensive that it very essentially injured the
reputation of your house. '
On October 23, a letter came from Robert
Morris urging Deane to be attentive to Thomas/
and spur him up to diligent, honest, and faithful
discharge of duty. By the same mail there came ^
a letter from the Committee announcing that ^
Thomas Jefferson had declined to go to France,
^and Arthur Lee of London had been appointed to
serve. with Deane and Franklin as commissioner.
It is interesting to imagine what would have been
Deane's later life, if Jefferson had accepted the ^^
office of commissioner, and Arthur Lee had been
allowed to spend his virulence on some one else.
The gloom of approaching disaster and ruin
began to gather about Deane when in December,
1777, Arthur Lee crossed the British Channel and (:
took lodgings in Paris. /
Before we pass to the consideration of Deane's
work in conjunction with Franklin and Lee, we
glance at the work accomplished in the five months
during which he had served alone. By the first
of December, eight ships were ready to sail with
90 Silas Deane
the supplies, which were indispensable for the
campaign which culminated in the surrender of
Burgoyne at Saratoga, and all, except the Flamand,
were got to sea in January and February, 1777;
the Flamand sailed in September. These vessels
carried eight thousand seven hundred and fifty
pairs of shoes, three thousand six hundred
blankets, more than four thousand dozen pairs of
stockings, one hundred and sixty-four brass cannon,
one hundred and fifty-three carriages, more than
forty-one thousand balls, thirty- seven thousand
fusils, three hundred and seventy-three thousand
flints, fifteen thousand gun worms, five hundred
and fourteen thousand musket balls, nearly
twenty thousand pounds of lead, nearly one hun-
dred and sixty-one thousand pounds of powder,
twenty-one mortars, more than three thousand
bombs, more than eleven thousand grenades, three
hundred and forty-five grapeshot, eighteen thou-
sand spades, shovels, and axes, over four thousand
tents, and fifty-one thousand pounds of sulphur.
The Amphitrite and Mercure, on board of which
were more than eighteen thousand stands of arms
complete, and fifty- two pieces of brass cannon,
with powder and tents and clothing, reached
Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in the spring in
season for the campaign of 1777. It is impossible
Forwards Supplies for Army 91
to exaggerate the importance of those supplies in
the battles which culminated in the fall of Bur-
goyne, who was sweeping down powerfully from
Canada to New York with the purpose of separat-
ing the northern from the southern colonies. It
was a time of general alarm throughout the
country. The governor's Horse Guard of Con-
necticut was summoned. Every nerve was
strained to stay the advance of Burgoyne. The
military supplies, furnished by Vergennes and
forwarded by Beaumarchais and Deane, landed
at Portsmouth and carried overland to the Hud-
son, figured largely in the splendid victory, which
gave new courage and hope to the American
cause, and soon led to the French recognition of
the new republic.
It were unfortunate if our story of Coudray and
De Broglie has created the impression that all the
volunteers who came from beyond the sea were
failures ; Lafayette, De Kalb, Steuben, and Pulaski
came early, and others who came later who did
valiant service.
On the whole, the choice of Deane as com-
missioner to forward military supplies was justified
by the results.
CHAPTER VII
FRANKLIN AND LEE JOIN DEANE IN PARIS
T^HE task of Deane was that of agent of the
Secret Committee of Congress in search of
help for the struggling colonists. He had no
official position, but after the Declaration of In-
dependence was issued, it was decided to appoint
three Commissioners, and Franklin, Jefferson, and
Deane were chosen ; JefEerson declined, and Arthur
Lee was appointed in his place.
There never has been any question about the
wisdom of the choice of Franklin.
Philosophic, literary, and political ferment pre-
pared the French people to sympathize with the
American insurgents . Scientific activity was vigor-
ous in France in the eighteenth century. "More
new truths," says Buckle, "concerning the ex-
ternal world were discovered in France during the
latter part of the eighteenth century than during
all the previous periods put together." Lecture
rooms of professors of chemistry, anatomy, and
physics were almost as crowded as theatres, and
92
Signs the Treaty with France 93
when Franklin appeared in Paris heralded by his
fame in electricity, and put the first Hghtning-rod
in France upon his dwelling in Passy, the genial
philosopher received a royal welcome.
Wearied with the artificial modes of life, the
French were delighted with the naturalness of the
Americans, and when Franklin appeared with his
provincial dress and benignant face, he excited a
widespread interest which rose to enthusiasm.
The feeling of the English was different. Some
claimed he had abandoned his country in her
ruin, "I have just seen," writes Franklin,
" seven paragraphs in the English papers about me,
six were lies. " Stormont, the British Ambassador
to France, wrote: ''It is generally believed here
that he comes in the double capacity of a nego-
ciator and a fugitive. He will lie, he will promise,
and he will flatter, with all the insincerity and
subtlety that are natural to him." Deane wrote:
" His arrival is the common topic for conversation,
and has given birth to a thousand conjectures. "
No one else could have been selected so admir-
ably adapted to the task that needed doing. The
story of the kite, the new world of electrical
knowledge and power just opening ; his reputation
as a philosopher and a wise man, his simple dress,
shrewd conversation, keen criticism, and inde-
94 Silas Deane
pendent judgment attracted the admiration of a
people, tired of an effete civilization.
The Comte de Segur says :
It would be difficult to describe the eagerness and
delight with which these agents of a people in a state
of insurrection against their monarch were received in
France, in the bosom of an ancient monarchy. No-
thing could be more striking than the contrast be-
tween the luxury of our capital, the elegance of our
fashions, the magnificence of Versailles, the still bril-
liant remains of the monarchical pride of Louis, and
the polished and superb dignity of our nobiHty. . .
and the almost rustic apparel, the unpowdered hair,
the plain but firm demeanor, the free and direct
language of the envoys; whose antique simplicity
of dress and appearance seemed to have introduced
within our walls, in the midst of the effeminate and
servile refinement of the eighteenth century, sages
contemporary with Plato, or republicans of the age
of Cato and of Fabius. This unexpected spectacle
produced upon us a greater effect in consequence of
its novelty, and because it occurred precisely at the
period when literature and philosophy had spread
amongst us all an unusual desire for reforms, a dis-
position to encourage innovations, and the seeds of an
ardent attachment to liberty.
Parton writes:
Men imagined they saw in Franklin a sage of an-
tiquity come back to give austere lessons and generous
examples to the moderns. They personified in him
Signs the Treaty with France 95
the Republic of which he was the representative and
the legislator. They regarded his virtues as those of
his countrymen, and even judged of their physi-
ognomy by the imposing and serene traits of his own.
The French police gave him abundant advertise-
ment :
Dr. Franklin [says a sketch of the time] is very much
run after, and f^ted, not only by the savants, his
confreres, but by all the people who can get hold of
him. This Quaker wears the full costume of his sect.
He has an agreeable physiognomy, spectacles always
on his eyes ; but little hair, — a fur cap is always on his
head. He wears no powder, but has a neat air,
linen very white, and a brown coat.
I When he reached Paris on Dec. 3, 1776, he took
lodgings at first at the center of the city in the
H6tel de Hamburg, but he soon accepted the in-
vitation of Le Ray de Chaumont, a wealthy and
ardent friend of America, to take up his abode in a
more retired place in Passy, half a mile beyond
the outskirts of Paris. There for nine years Dr.
Franklin lived.
That house is still in existence, and it has on its
f agade an inscription which informs the public that
it was the home of Franklin.
That house became the center of a cordial
and extensive hospitality. Americans were there,
whether friendly or unfriendly. There Franklin
96 Silas Deane
tried to make Deane and Lee forget their ani-
mosities. There was entertained Ralph Izard, a
man of the same stripe as Arthur Lee, sent over as
envoy to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, but pre-
ferring to Hve in Paris in idleness; whose laziness
and meanness at length wore out the patience of
the gentle Franklin, who closed his house to a
man so unprincipled and virulent.
John Adams says :
Franklin's reputation was more universal than that of
Leibnitz or Newton, Frederick or Voltaire; and his
charactermoreesteemedthanany or allof them. . . .
His name was familiar to government and people, to
kings, courtiers, nobility, clergy, and philosophers, as
well as plebeians, to such a degree that there was
scarcely a peasant or a citizen, a valet-de-chambre,
coachman, or footman, a lady's chamber-maid, or a
scullion in the kitchen, who was not familiar with it,
or who did not consider him as a friend to humankind.
If a collection could be made of all the Gazettes of
Europe for the latter part of the eighteenth century,
a greater number of panegyrical paragraphs upon "le
grande Franklin" would appear, it is believed, than
upon any other man who ever lived.
Medallions, busts, medals of every size and
style appeared. Franklin wrote his daughter:
A variety of impressions has been made of different
sizes : some large enough to be set in the lids of snuff-
boxes; some so small as to be worn in rings; and the
Signs the Treaty with France 97
number sold is incredible. These, with the pictures,
busts, and printings (of which copies upon copies are
spread everywhere), have made your father's face as
well known as that of the moon.
Franklin and Deane were together at Passy, on
friendliest terms, and soon Lee came over from
England and took lodgings in another part of the
city, scornful of the French, eager to push forward
his own interests, bent on mischief.
Arthur Lee had two brothers in Congress, one
of whom was Richard Henry Lee, chairman of the
Committee on Foreign Affairs. Arthur Lee was
born Dec. 20, 1740, three years after Deane. His
early education was finished at Eton in England,
whence he went to Edinburgh to prepare for the
medical profession. After taking his degree, he
traveled in Holland and Germany, and then re-
turned to Virginia to practice. Not satisfied with
the medical profession he went to London and be-
gan to study law at the Temple, about the year
1766.
Sparks is our authority for the statement that
Lee was hostile to Franklin from an early date,
and while he did not secure his downfall as he did
that of Deane, he did his best to compass it.
While Franklin was agent for Massachusetts at
the Court of London, Arthur Lee was nominated
98 Silas Deane
to be his successor when he should retire. Cir-
cumstances detained the philosopher longer in
England than was expected, and Lee grew im-
patient, and fearing, as he said, that Franklin
would never depart until he was gathered to his
fathers, resorted to the dishonorable artifice of
writing letters to one of the principal men of the
Massachusetts legislature, filled with charges
against him regarding his official conduct, charges
as destitute of foundation as of candor and
propriety.
In October, 1777, Lee wrote to his brothers and
to Samuel Adams that foreign affairs were in con-
fusion, and that he would "prefer being at the
Court of France, the great wheel by which all the
other wheels are moved," and he recommended
that FrankHn be sent to Vienna and Deane to
Holland.
At one time, he intimated that Franklin had
sent out a public vessel on a ''crusing job," in
the profits of which he was to share; at another
time, he said that Franklin and an American
banker in Paris were in league with each other to
defraud the public and put money into their own
pockets.
Deane had some dealings with Lee before the
latter was appointed Commissioner, and in a way
Signs the Treaty with France 99
which did not commend the Virginian to the
Yankee. In the summer of 1776, Deane wrote:
I received a letter from Arthur Lee, then at London,
desiring me to inform Congress that Joseph Reed and
John Langdon were dangerous persons, and to put
Congress on guard. Stranger as I was to Arthur
Lee's character, his letter greatly surprised me, the
more so as he wrote in the most positive terms, with-
out giving me the reasons for the charge. I replied
that I could by no means comply with his request,
that I had long been personally acquainted with the
gentlemen, and had the fullest confidence in their
integrity and zeal for America, therefore I could not
think of transmitting such information without proof;
that I knew they held important posts in Congress,
therefore, if the charge could be supported, no time
should be lost in transmitting evidence, but I trembled
at the thought of giving Congress suspicions of its
most confidential servants without certain proof; the
consequences must be pernicious to the public and
fatal to the individual.
Some time afterward Lee visited Paris, and
Deane urged him to give him the grounds for his
letter concerning Reed and Langdon. Lee said
that as for Reed he really knew nothing more than
that he formerly corresponded with Lord Dart-
mouth, and Reed's brother-in-law had an inter-
view with his lordship. But as for Langdon he
had no doubt about his disloyalty, as he had spent
the last winter in London and was frequently with
100 Silas Deane
the Ministry. Deane replied that as to the latter
he had spent the last winter in Philadelphia, and
as to the former he did not think such vague
and inconclusive circumstances were sufficient to
authorize the sending general charges to Congress ;
that charges of such a complexion, and coming
from such a person as himself, must forever damn
the reputation of those accused, and alarm and
embarrass the public. To this Lee replied that
he knew that a person named Langdon had been
in London the last winter, and therefore he wrote,
supposing him to be John Langdon of Ports-
mouth; that he believed he was too suspicious at
times, and was glad Deane had not sent forward
the letter.
When the three Commissioners had gotten
settled, they called on Vergennes, who assured
them of his friendliness so far as the treaty obli-
gations with England would permit. He criti-
cized Beaumarchais for letting Deane have the
supplies and seemed to blame the imaginary firm,
Roderique, Hortalez & Co., and Franklin and Lee
determined to let Deane engineer the business end
of their commission.
It was a trying time, the Amphitrite had re-
turned to port because of head-winds and lack of
fresh meat for the gallant Coudray. Deane found
Signs the Treaty with France loi
Beaumarchais ill in bed with fatigue and vexation.
"I never had been," writes Deane, "in so critical
and distressed a situation. All the difficulties
before were as nothing." The stores of thirty
thousand stands of arms, near two hundred and
fifty pieces of brass artillery, clothing and powder,
were ready at the ports; ships were ready at ex-
pense; accounts of the critical situation of the
armies in America, their misfortunes, distress, and
want of supplies, together with the coolness and
reserve of the Minister, almost put Deane into
desperation. Something must be done; Deane
saw that his only hope was through Beaumarchais
and he assured him that, however decided the
opposition of the city and the Court, there must be
no desertion of the cause, and the business of
securing supplies for the American army must
not fall through; between Beaumarchais and
Deane, the Amphitrite was cleared as for the
West Indies, with instructions to the captain to
head for Portsmouth, and he arrived there in
April just as the troops were taking the field.
It was difficult and expensive to get the stores'
to the seaports; some of the cannon were drawn
two hundred miles; British agents were every-
where on the watch; the moment war supplies
began to move, remonstrance and counter orders
, 102 Silas Deane
sprang up. Deane carried the burden of buying
and forwarding supplies, a task for which he was
' better qualified than for politics. Franklin was
past seventy when he went to Paris, and he had
-neither experience nor taste for business and
accounts, and he was quite willing that younger
men should attend to details. Lee was away from
Paris much of the time, in Spain, Holland, and
Berlin, vainly seeking help ; when he was in Paris
Deane talked over the contracts with him as he
always did with Franklin, but affairs ran more
smoothly with the Commissioners when Lee was
out of town. Here is a sample of his mental
breadth and good sense: Deane was negotiating
with a French contractor, a M. Holker, for
several thousand suits of clothes for the army, and
after talking it over together they decided that it
would be wise, for the severe climate of America, to
make the coats longer than usual, in order to lap
over the trousers for the better protection of the
men; it was argued that the expense would be
slight as it would require only one sixth more
cloth and four extra buttons, but when Deane
and Holker talked it over with Lee, the latter
objected on the ground of expense; so strenuous
was the opposition, that Holker generously
offered to bear the extra cost himself, when Lee
Signs the Treaty with France 103
answered that he had another objection, that it
would increase the weight of the coat and thus
fatigue the soldier! It is not strange that after
that the French contractors declined to discuss
their contracts with Lee.
The autumn of 1776 was discouraging: Bur-
goyne was on his way toward Albany to cut the
eastern colonies off from the southern ; Gen. Howe
was pushing on toward Philadelphia, and the
American forces were retreating; the French
Ministry was wary ; sometimes the French assur-
ances of help were scanty. Deane went to
Fontainebleau with a fixed resolution, when the
fortunes of the Continental army were ebbing and
credit almost gone. The appearance of the per-
sistent Yankee Commissioner gave the Ministry
decided uneasiness, for powerful English officers
were on the watch, and the future of the American
cause was cloudy. They asked Deane to wait
till they heard from Spain; he knew it was an
excuse to hear from America; the last news from
the seat of war was discouraging, the next might
mean ruin for the insurgents ; but notwithstanding
the hostile looks, Deane declared his deter-
mination to remain there until he obtained a
positive answer to his request for money. He
insisted on a short interview with Vergennes, he
104 Silas Deane
was informed that the courier had not returned
from Spain, and it was desired that he should retire
from Fontainebleau, where the person and business
of any stranger, especially an American Com-
missioner, could not escape observation.
Deane replied that it was within the power of the
Minister to free himself from any uneasiness on his
account by granting his request, and probably of
all future solicitude concerning America by the
absolute refusal of it, but that he could not think
of returning to Paris without an explicit answer.
As we look at the situation, the stand which
Deane took was indispensable, for while the French
treasury was impoverished, the state of affairs in
America was desperate; even Franklin advised
stopping the execution of the contract, and selling
the goods on hand, to pay the pressing debts which
the Commissioners had contracted.
Deane's earnest and convincing plea was
successful, he was told that three million livres
would be furnished Grand, our banker, on our
account in quarterly payments the next year,
' and perhaps something from Spain.
This did not clear the debt ; the cost of supplies
had been so large, the prize money so trifling,
the expense of refitting so great, the money
spent on released prisoners so considerable ; but it
Signs the Treaty with France 105
enabled the Commissioners to go on with the con-
tracts for supplies, though news of the defeat
at Brandywine and the progress of Burgoyne
in Canada deepened their anxiety.
It is not strange that Vergennes should have
been so cautious; the evacuation of Ticonteroga
and Crown Point laid the road to our frontier open,
without a fort or redoubt to impede. After the
affair at Brandywine, the two capital cities of New
York and Philadelphia were practically in the
hands of the British, as were also the town and
harbor of Newport; a victorious army at Albany
threatened to separate New England from the
other colonies ; British superiority at sea threatened
to destroy our commerce, and if England should
declare war on France the prospects of the colo-
nists were forlorn enough. In after years Deane
said that he had ceased to criticize the French
Ministry for its lack of zeal in our time of distress.
September, October, and November, 1777,
passed. The general opinion in France was that
the Americans would be obliged to submit. The
Commissioners were anxious to have France de-
clare for America, believing that such declaration
would close the war, but no word came from the
Court.
The Commissioners and the French Ministry had
^o6 Silas Deane
no communication by writing even, except by
petitions and requests to which a verbal answer
was sometimes given, but more commonly there
was no answer; the French authorities at Nantes
restored prize ships to English owners; when the
Amphitrite returned from America, her captain
was imprisoned for carrying supplies to the in-
surgents.
In December, the whole situation changed when
J. L. Austin arrived from Boston with the reviving
and important news of the surrender of General
Eurgoyne. "A sovereign cordial to the dying, " it
roused and reanimated the friends of America in
every part of Europe.
During all this dreary period, the trials of the
Commissioners were increased by the suspicious
and uneasy disposition of Arthur Lee. Deane
writes: "From the first Mr. Lee gave Dr. FrankHn
and me much trouble which was constantly in-
creasing; and the dissatisfaction with and con-
tempt for the French nation in general, which he
took no pains to conceal, often gave us pain, and
rendered himself suspected by many. "
The report of Burgoyne's defeat was followed
by interviews between the Commissioners and the
French Ministry concerning a treaty. In that
time of strain, so violent and irrational was the
Signs the Treaty with France 107
disposition of Lee, that Franklin was of the
opinion that his head was affected. After much
discussion the treaty was signed at Passy on
Feb. 6, 1778, with the understanding that for the^
present it should be kept a secret.
On the night of the day the treaties were signed,
Deane noted that Lee's private secretary started
hastily for England, and in a day or two Fox
spoke in Parliament of the treaty as signed.
Lee's responsibility for this has been declared un-
proven by a writer of some standing, and Durand,
in his New Materials on the American War,
says that Lee's correspondence with Congress is
a series of injurious invsinuations, implying that
Franklin was little better than a robber, while
alliance between France and the United States was
due to him alone. More than that, for since De
Lomenie examined the documents in the French
Archives, records have been unearthed which
go to show that Lee was substantially a traitor.
The moment he was told that Louis XVI had
accepted the treaty of commerce and friendship
with the United States, and when he was about
to sign it with Franklin and Deane, Lee wrote
Shelburne and advised him that "if England
wanted to prevent closer ties between France and
the United States she must not delay." M.
io8 Silas Deane
Doniel states that Lee was in the pay of the party
opposed to Lord North. We have no reason to
question the honesty or accuracy of these men,
who have examined the full records in Paris, but
Arthur Lee has enough to answer for without the
charge of traitor.
Thus was effected the second important object
which the Commissioners had in view. Needed
supplies had been secured, and nearly all had been
shipped, and all save a part of one cargo reached
Portsmouth in safety, and now treaties of friend-
ship and commerce had been signed.
Deane determined to devote his attention to the
task of securing a loan from Holland ; he had been
in correspondence with men of rank there, and had
been assured of assistance of men of standing in
France; the business of buying and forwarding
supplies had been conducted so covertly, and in so
many places, that two or three months would be
consumed in collecting the accounts, and Deane
planned spending that time in Holland, but on
March 4, he received a letter from Lovell with
the order of Congress of Dec. 8, 1777, requesting
him to return to America to report to Congress on
the condition of affairs in Europe.
Knowing what he did of the mischievous and
underhanded activity of Lee, the active mind
V
Signs the Treaty with France 109
and not too sanguine temper of Deane may have
given hirti some uneasiness at the peremptory-
summons.
He had long been under a heavy strain; in
addition to the financial and political demands
made upon him, a great bereavement had come
into his home, of which we are reminded in the
following letter to C. W. F. Dumas, written Oct.
1,1777:
I feel myself sensibly affected on receiving your
kind and friendly condolence on my misfortune;
though the situation of my country is sufficient
1 to engross my whole attention, yet the loss I have
met with is not less heavy on my spirits, nor does it
I fall the lighter on me for coming attended with public
1 misfortunes and distresses.
I
I The explanation of this sorrowful letter is
I found in the following item from the Connecticut
^ Gazette of New London of June 27, 1777.
; "Died at Wethersfield, after a long indis-
position, Mrs. Elizabeth Deane, Consort of Silas
Deane, Esquire, now in France, and daughter of
Gurdon Saltonstall of this town."
x\s Deane turned his face homeward after two
years' absence, he must have felt a deep sense of
satisfaction with the work accomplished, which
no doubt went far to relieve the shadow which
was approaching.
CHAPTER VIII
THE RECALL
"IV/^ have seen how the anxious summer and
^" autumn of 1777 were followed by the good
news that Burgoyne had surrendered.
On Oct. 31, at ten in the morning, the brigan-
tine Perch sailed from Long Wharf in Boston, carry-
ing J. L. Austin of that city with messages from
the Massachusetts Council announcing the surren-
der at Saratoga and the capture of six thousand
men.
It was the first great victory for America, and
is reckoned by Creasy as worthy of a place among
the fifteen decisive battles of the world.
The winds and tides sped the happy vessel, and
in thirty days she reached the French coast. On
Nov. 30, Austin announced the news in France.
Leaving Nantes in a chaise, drawn by three
horses abreast, he hastened to Versailles, and
thence to Passy. As he drove into the courtyard
he was met by Franklin who asked, " Sir, is Phila-
delphia taken ? ' * "It is, " was the reply, ' ' but. Sir,
no
The Trying Recall iii
I have greater news than that : General Burgoyne
and his whole army are prisoners."
Beaumarchais was then visiting the Commis-
sioners at Passy, and he started for Paris with
such eagerness to carry the news that the carriage
tipped over and he nearly broke his neck. But
the casualty did not weaken his joy. "My right
arm is cut," he said, "the bones of my neck are
nearly crushed, but the charming news from
America is a balm to my wounds. "
Paul Jones, commander of the Ranger, and
founder of the American 'navy, had a part in the
celebration. On arriving in Nantes this brave
corsair found himself one of the officers of a recog-
nized Republic and hearing from the French Ad-
miral that his salute would be returned, a little
after sunset the Ranger discharged thirteen guns
in honor of the French Administration, and
in reply nine guns saluted the flag of the United
States.
On hearing the news, Vergennes was as im-
patient to close the treaty as he had previously
been reluctant, saying: "The power which first
recognizes American independence will gather all
the fruits of the war. France must anticipate such
action on England's part by greater speed in
making the colonists our friends. "
112 Silas Deane
A ship was soon on its way to carry the joyous
news that Louis had decided to recognize the new
RepubHc. The Commissioners wrote that the
news of the surrender of Burgoyne had called
forth universal joy in France, as if it had been a
victory of their own troops, as it was a victory won
by arms from its arsenals.
While the vessel was bearing the welcome news
to America, another passed over to France, bearing
a very different message for one of the Commis-
sioners, the man who had represented his country
ithere the longest, whose fidelity, energy, and suc-
cess were unquestioned.
At last the succession of underhanded and dis-
paraging letters of Arthur Lee bore fruit, and
Deane must turn from a life of incessant toil and
care to years of exhausting and shameful facing
a fogbank of malice and lies.
When Deane learned of the action of Congress
he consulted Franklin, who said that, notwith-
standing the unsettled state of the accounts, it
would be best for him to go at once, that his stay in
America would not be for any length of time, and
he would be back for the final settlement.
Deane then waited on Vergennes and told him of
the recall : he found him friendly, and willing to do
anything in his power; he offered the use of a
The Trying Recall 113
frigate, or even of a ship of the line to be put into
instant readiness to carry Deane to America, and
said affairs would not probably suffer in hia
absence.
Deane, finding it a favorable opportunity, took
occasion to urge an immediate declaration of the
treaties to the Court of London, and the sending
out of a strong squadron, then nearly ready at
Toulon.
After several interviews on the subject the meas-
ure was adopted; Deane agreed that the affair
should be a secret on his part except to Franklin
and Dr. Bancroft ; the fleet was ordered to go direct
to Delav/are Bay, and it carried four skillful
captains, who were familiar with the coast of
the United States.
On March 16, Stormont left Paris for London,
and on March 20, the American Commissioners
were formally presented to Louis XVI by Ver-
gennes. It was not as brilliant as some other
ceremonies which have occurred at Versailles,
but it was most gratifying to Franklin, Deane, and
Lee. Franklin was less affected by the splendid
decorations of the palace than he was by the fact
that it was ill-kept, and sweeping and other sani-
tary provisions neglected.
After the reception, the Commissioners called
114 Silas Deane
to pay their respects to Madame de Lafayette,
who was at Versailles, and to assure her of the
gratitude of America for her husband's efforts.
Then they dined with Vergennes.
On the night of March 31, Deane started for the
coast, having obtained from Grand an account
of all the moneys received or paid on the public
account, which he carried with him, and duplicates
were given to Franklin and Lee, and with the
former he left the public papers and an explanation
of the accounts. It was all he could do in the
little time at his disposal. The greater part of the
accounts being unsettled, no general account
could be made ; moreover, the order for the recall
and Lo veil's letter, which contained all the in-
formation Deane had concerning the motives for
the recall, gave him to understand that all that
was desired of him was information on the state
of affairs in Europe.
I by no means concluded [he wrote later]- that
I was so suddenly called upon to render in an exact
state of an account which demanded necessarily a
much longer time to complete than was allowed me by
the terms of the recall; nor, in addition to this, could
I possibly conceive that the nature of the recall was
such as to require of me individually an account of
the joint transactions in money matters of myself
and colleagues. I fell in with M. Gerard on my way
The Trying Recall 115
to Toulon, and we embarked, happy at the great
prospects before us.
How mistaken Deane was in his bright hopes
will appear in our next chapter, but here is
the place to describe the events which led to the
recall.
We have seen that the origin of active French
participation in our struggle was in the con-
versations of Arthur Lee and Beaumarchais, in the
glowing language and large assurance of both of
those ardent and imaginative men. When Lee
learned that Deane had been appointed rather
than himself to carry those brilliant dreams into
reality, he was bitterly disappointed, and he set
at work, with more or less deliberation, to ruin
Deane and secure his recall.
He visited Deane; he tried to get Deane into
trouble in the matter of Reed and Langdon; he
burdened the mails with messages to his friends in
Virginia and Philadelphia; he filled the mind of
every m^n in Congress he could influence with
suspicions toward his colleague. He did not lim-
it his attack to Deane, but described Franklin as
indolent, incapable, and selfish.
Lee wrote of Franklin :
His abilities are great and reputation high, removed
ii6 Silas Deane
as he is to so considerable a distance from the obser-
vation of his constituents. If he is not guided by
principles of virtue and honor, these abilities and
that reputation may produce the most mischievous
effects. On my conscience I believe him to be under
no such internal restraint.
Some of his work must have been more skillfully
done than that. Gerard saw his insincerity and
meanness. In a letter to Vergennes of Sept. 2"],
1779, Gerard characterized the statements of Lee
as "an absurd tissue of lies and sarcasms, which
can do nothing but compromise those who have
the misfortune to be in correspondence with him. "
We are not to think of Lee as lacking in patriot-
ism and devotion; the implications of Deane and
Beaumarchais, that he was willing to play into the
hands of the English, we would rather regard as
unproven, though there are suspicious facts which
injure him if they do not convict; but there is
no question about his persistent and venomous
endeavor to undermine Deane. Lee was a man
of sanguine temperament, with the fire and vehe-
mence of a Southerner ; credulous, hasty, impetu-
ous, he allowed his conduct to be shaped by a
mind corroded by suspicion, jealousy, and dis-
trust. He described himself clearly when he told
Deane that he was too apt to yield to suspicions.
The Trying Recall 117
He said: ''Unhappily my fate has thrown me into
pubHc Hfe, and the impatience of my nature makes
me embark in it with an impetuosity and impru-
dence which increase the evils to which it is neces-
sarily subject."
Lee was a man of wide scholarship ; his opportu-
nities for education were of the highest order in
England and Scotland. While a student he had
formed friendships with such men as Burke,
Glynn, and Sir William Jones; he was fearless,
industrious, and tireless in the pursuit of his ob-
ject. He was not averse to storm and struggle in
pursuing his aims. Alert, energetic, remorseless,
everything must be sacrificed to achieve his am-
bitions.
Deane was by nature more formal, cold, perhaps
a little haughty, and when he came in contact with
the enthusiastic, ambitious, acrimonious Lee
^ there was no love lost on either side. Deane had
the Secret Committee behind him, and the pedestal
of a high office, in which he had been placed, be-
neath his feet, and he did not hesitate to let Lee
know that he must occupy a lower position. Five
months of stiff service in Paris by himself, of
necessity, gave Deane a purchase which he was not
slow to make the most of, and this gave little joy
to Lee who wanted that central office.
ii8 Silas Deane
It is perhaps not quite fair to lay upon Lee all
the blame for the altercations which for years dis-
y turbed the peace of Congress, and brought such
agony upon Deane. The conditions in which they
were placed ; the two men were so unlike each other ;
their aims so antagonistic, that nothing less than
an angelic visitation or a daily miracle could have
averted quarrels. From the temper of letters
written and words uttered it appears that the
angels meddled as little as did Franklin.
The first trace of open difficulty, appears in a
letter from Deane to Vergennes, Aug. 22, 1776,
from which we quote: ''I was this morning in-
formed of the arrival of Mr. Arthur Lee, and that
he would be in Paris to-morrow. This was sur-
prising to me as I knew of no particular affair that
might bring him here. "
Four weeks later Lee was back in London, and
three months later he returned to Paris as one of
the three Commissioners. The first seeds of dis-
cord were planted, a condition which led Congress
by a large majority to put upon its journals a
resolve, "that suspicions and animosities have
arisen among the late and present Commissioners,
highly prejudicial to the honor and interest of
the United States."
When Franklin and Lee joined Deane, there
The Trying Recall 119
were peculiar difficulties in the way of forwarding
*' supplies to America, as we have seen in the last
chapter : Franklin had no experience in commercial
matters, and Lee had neither experience nor sym-
pathy with Deane, who was not unwilling to shoul-
der responsibility and complete the work which
he had so well begun.
Moreover, it seemed best that Lee should go to
other countries in the interest of the insurgents.
Lee was consulted about the contracts when
possible, but it was not fair for Lee to harass the
I ears of Congress with clandestine complaints
I about Deane because he did not give him a voice
! in the contracts with Beaumarchais for supplies,
Holker for clothing, and Montheu for ships, at a
i time when Deane was straining every nerve to get
cannon from Strassburg, muskets, fusils, powder,
and shot from magazines in the interior to Bor-
deaux, Havre, Dunkirk, and Nantes.
It was a difficult achievement to complete the
task at all, in view of the repeated delays and inter-
positions of the French Government, the hostility
and complaints of the English officers, and the
scarcity of money; one is tempted to use strong
words to characterize Lee for criticizing Deane to
members of Congress in the bitterest and most
unsparing terms, because of his unbusinesslike
120 Silas Deane
methods, and the confusion of the accounts, which
of necessity attended affairs which had to be con-
■ ducted with stealth and concealment.
Another element in Lee's discontent seems to
have been the fact that, when he returned from
Prussia, he found that Deane was so acceptable at
Versailles, was so well received by the Ministers,
was so highly esteemed among other men of
eminence, was in such correspondence with in-
fluential men near and far, that he was wielding
great power, and likely to exert still larger in-
fluence, while Lee was comparatively unknown.
A man of Lee's disposition, who considered
himself as one of the prime movers in the Rev-
olution, did not enjoy the situation: and it is
barely possible that Deane did not apply any
balm to the wounded ambition of his unhappy
colleague.
Then came the adventure of Lee's mind in a
field in which he was an expert. How much
sincerity there was in his work of studied and
persistent defamation we cannot say. It is chari-
table to believe that he so brooded over the situa-
tion, so fed his diseased imagination, so nursed
his wounded and disappointed feelings, that he
came to view himself as a martyr, and Deane and
his friends as his deadly enemies.
The Trying Recall 121
Perhaps he really believed that Beaumarchais
and Deane were making vast sums of money at
the expense of the public. The plots and strata-
gems in his own unwholesome mind may have
made it possible for him to believe that selfish
deliriums controlled the Yankee Commissioner.
He seems to have believed that a combination
was writing paragraphs to his discredit, and pro-
curing their insertion in European Gazettes; also
writing letters to men of influence in America,
and that the head of this powerful conspiracy was
Deane.
In such a state of mind, this victim of delusion
or malice, or both, began to write to friends in
America about Deane. Lee had two brothers in
Congress; one of them, R. H. Lee, was a man of
decided weight; the Adamses from Massachu-
setts were warm friends of the Lees, and before
long these and others, like Laurens, Duer, Tom
Paine, and Izard, were hard on the track of the
doomed man.
The following are extracts from Arthur Lee's
letters to his brother, R. H. Lee, dated nine days
after the treaty was signed :
My absence and the care with which things have
been concealed from me have disqualified me to judge
of the truth of the suspicions, which are general, of
122 Silas Deane
Deane's having had douceurs from the public con-
tractors and others in order to conciliate his patron-
age; and that he is in a sort of partnership with
Holker, Sabatier, Montheu, and others, in which the
public money and influence are made subservient
to private profit.
Again :
Whenever he is removed from the control of money,
the truth will come out fast enough, and the persons
who, under his auspices, have been defrauding the
public, may be brought to account. Upon the whole,
these are dangerous men, and capable of any wicked-
ness to avenge themselves on those who are suspected
of counteracting their purposes. The calling to ac-
count for money we have expended, the taking of the
expenditure out of their hands for the future, or the
removal of him who has misapplied it, would lead to
discovery and proofs before time has enabled him to
prevent them.
Can anything be more unfair than such an
attack upon a colleague concerning matters, of
: whose details the accuser did not even profess
^ to have any accurate knowledge? How could
such insinuations do other than create preju-
dice and affix a stigma? If Lee believed these
^ charges to be well grounded, it was his duty to
discover the proofs; and it certainly was his duty
to keep his suspicions to himself until he could
issue them with the facts to support them.
The Trying Recall 123
Furthermore, simple decency demanded that he
should present the accusations first of all to
Deane himself, that he might have an opportunity,
if possible, to explain them.
A charge on mere suspicion is a calumny, and it
is hard to find language strong enough to condemn
the criminality of a man who is in daily inter-
course with a colleague, in an office which implies
mutual confidence and responsibility, and at the
same time is doing all he can to destroy his in-
fluence and break down his reputation among the
men, three thousand miles away, who were re-
sponsible for keeping him in office, and who had
no opportunity to sift the facts and learn the
evidence.
Lee wrote to several men with greater latitude
of censure than the extracts we have given ; these
letters were shown to others, and the effect could
not be other than in the highest degree injurious.
So strong and malicious was Lee's slander of
Franklin that, but for the influence of Gerard, it
is probable he too would have been unseated.
Deane's fate was fixed by a selfishness, a cruelty,
an avarice which the unfortunate object of Lee's
meanness did not understand, until he had vainly
and for years struggled and fought.
Every breeze that wafted his vessel homeward
124 Silas Deane
bore him nearer a nest of serpents, which the
X^unning and unprincipled Lee was industriously
\^ hatching. Those who were not convinced that
, Deane was in the wrong, would have their con-
fidence shaken by the bold insinuations of a man so
able, so well-posted, and so competent to under-
stand the whole situation as Lee. Men of caution
and good judgment would find it easy to suspect
Deane on the repeated declarations of a colleague
who unblushingly linked his name with the names
of three eminent French merchants as men in
league to defraud the government.
This is the underside of the story of Deane's
recall. Deane suspected that Lee was working
against him, but he felt a certain security in the
fact that he possessed the confidence of Franklin,
who was, as he said, his "guide, philosopher, and
friend."
Deane carried with him a letter from Franklin
to the president of Congress, dated March 31,
1778, as follows:
My colleague, Mr. Deane, being recalled by Con-
gress, and no reasons given that yet appeared here,
it is apprehended to be the effect of some misrepresen-
tations from an enemy or two at Paris and at Nantes.
I have no doubt that he will be able clearly to justify
himself; but having lived intimately with him more
The Trying Recall 125
than fifteen months, the greatest part of the time in the
same house, and a constant witness of his public con-
duct, I cannot avoid giving this testimony, though un-
asked, that I esteem him a faithful, active, and able
minister, who to my knowledge has done in various
ways great and important services to his country,
whose interests I wish may always by every one in
her employ be as much and as efficiently promoted.
The opinion of Beaumarchais is to the same
effect. In a secret memoir for the ministers of the
king he wrote:
By character and by ambition Mr. Arthur Lee was
first jealous of Mr. Deane. He finished by becoming
his enemy, which always happens to small minds,
more occupied in supplanting their rivals than in
surpassing them in merit.
The connections of Mr. Lee in England, and two
brothers whom he has in Congress, have made him
recently an important and dangerous man.
His plan has always been to prefer between France
and England the power which would most surely
bring him to fortune. England has some advantages
for him. He has often explained himself on the sub-
ject in his libertine suppers. But to succeed, it was
necessary to get rid of a colleague so formidable by
his patriotism as Mr. Deane. This he has accom-
plished by causing him to be suspected in several
points of view by Congress. Having learned that the
American army regarded the foreign military officers
with displeasure, he threw poison into the zeal of
his associate who sent them. At the same time, the
126 Silas Deane
conduct of some Frenchmen, who escaped from our
Islands, justifying perhaps the repugnance they felt
for our officers in America, Mr. Lee profited by these
dispositions to affirm to Congress that Mr. Deane
had, on his own motion, and against good advice,
sent these officers, who were as expensive as useless
to the Republic.
A second motive for the recall is the officious care
Mr. Lee has taken to write incessantly to Congress,
that all that the house of Hortalez had sent, whether
of merchandise or munitions of war, were a present
from France to America, that he had been told so by
Mr. Hortalez himself.
Nothing was easier than for the politic Mr. Lee to
envenom the conduct of Mr. Deane by giving it more
the effect of secret menaces tending to favor certain
demands for money, of which he afterwards received
a share of the profits; all of which explains very clearly
the astonishing silence that Congress has kept upon
more than ten of my letters which were full of detail.
This silence is what has determined me to send an
honest and discreet man who can penetrate the
foundation of this intrigue.
To-day Mr. Deane, loaded with grief, finds himself
suddenly and harshly recalled. He is ordered to go
to give an account of his conduct and to justify him-
self from many faults which they do not designate.
He had resolved in his resentment not to go until
Congress had sent him the charges, not wishing, as
he said, to go to deliver himself into the hands of his
personal enemies, without carrying with him justifi-
cations which would confound them, but I induced
him to change his determination.
The Trying Recall 127
After explaining his conviction that Arthur Lee
was a "lance with two heads," and, through his
brother WilHam, was playing into the hands of the
English, Beaumarchais assured Deane that his
vindication was assured.
Your justification [he said] is in my portfolio.
Lee accuses you of having on your authority sent offi-
cers to America, and I have in my hands a letter in
cypher for the politic Lee, who presses me warmly to
send engineers and officers to the aid of America, and
that letter was written before your arrival in France.
Mr. Lee pretends to have received from me the
assurance that all my consignments were presents
from France, and that all the rest is a romance of your
cupidity ; but in the same portfolio I have the bargain
in cypher between Lee and myself, which proves that
correspondences were established by this very Lee,
on the basis of an active and recipient trade, and not
otherwise.
Then you did not imagine on your own motion that
America had need of officers. Upon your arrival in
France, by following errors begun by Lee, you cannot
be guilty in the eyes of Congress for having regarded
as an honorable commerce what was established
under that form.
Beaumarchais says that he persuaded Deane to
brave the storm, confident that his honest and
patriotic character would be established and his
enemies be put to shame.
This friendly and ardent Frenchman also wrote
128 Silas Deane
to Congress a letter which is dated March 23,
1778, and after explaining the origin of his work
for the United States, he says that he wrote Lee
in London of his project of forming a fictitious
business house called Roderique, Hortalez & Co.
to send military supplies, and Lee made no reply
to his letter, and just then Deane appeared on the
scene.
From the moment of his arrival [writes Beau-
marchais] I corresponded with no one else, and it is
in consequence of our mutual efforts, his powers which
he communicated to me, the details with which he
furnished me, and the specific demands he made for
supplies and munitions of war, besides his repeated
promises that you would meet our shipments with
prompt returns, that I prevailed upon my friends to
entrust me with sufficient funds. He alone has over-
come difficulties on every hand; and without the re-
liance that we have placed on his promises, I should
never, very likely, have succeeded in realizing this
enterprise, which before his arrival was a doubtful and
undeveloped plan.
Although the returns pledged by him have not
arrived within the time fixed, we have not indulged in
reproaches, observing that he was even more dis-
tressed than we ourselves. I venture to assure you.
Gentlemen, that had he not continually endeavored
to maintain our confidence during this delay, I should
perhaps have had the pain of being compelled to
abandon a venture, that offered only risk, with scarcely
a hope of profit.
The Trying Recall 129
I have never treated with any other person in
France, and as the other Commissioners have ever
been lacking in common civility to me, I testify that if
my zeal, my advances of money, and my shipments of
supplies and merchandise have been acceptable to the
august Congress, their gratitude is due to the inde-
fatigable exertions of Mr. Deane through their com-
mercial affairs.
A letter was also sent to Deane from Count de
Vergennes dated March 26, 1778, praying that he
might find in his own country the same sentiments
of regard he had inspired in France.
You need not ask [he wrote] for more than those
I entertain for you, and shall preserve for you as long
as I shall live.
The king, desirous of giving you a personal testi-
mony of his satisfaction with your conduct, has
charged me to inform M. the president of Congress
of it; this is the object of the letters which M. Gerard
will deliver you for Mr. Hancock. He will also de-
liver you a box with the portrait of the king.
The box was of gold, and was set with diamonds.
With these testimonials, and the assurance of his
own conscience that he deserved well of the Re-
public, with much solicitude, yet with strong
hopes that all would be well, Deane reached the
United States.
The work of Deane in Europe, which he had
wrought so zealously, and with such success for
130 Silas Deane
nearly two \-ear5, was over. B3' reason of circum-
stances he could not control he was compelled to
work in intimate alliance with a nan with whom
he had Httle in common, and the result vras what
we might natiu^y expect.
In the words of James Lovell in a letter to
Franklin a 3'ear later : "In my opinion, the improper
tripHcate appointment for the Ccur: :i France
produced, in ver^r nat-iral consequence, suspicion
and animosity."
Thus returned to his native countr;.- the ntan
who was acciinted two years before, zy an ai.e
committee e: Ccngress consisting c: rrankhn.
Moiris. Jay, Harrison, and Dickinsin. to secure
suet rs ::r America in her hour c: need. Ee ha a
performed weU his task: despite his ntistakes. he
fulfilled the task which was set for ''-''^' t : a: : the
suppHes reached Portsmouth in tirae ::r the tant-
paign of 1777, which came t: 1:5 a.uiva :.:n in
the surrender of Burgo^-ne . T h e t u e s : : : : - - a: e t h er
the hist or}" oi the gh^naas ' zI.t :: 1777 wiuli.
have been what it was, had the rancorous Arthur
Lee been in the office Deane so abh' filled, we
need not stay to discuss. Deane did the work he
was bidden perform, and the victory at Saratoga
was followed b}- the treaties with France of Feb.
6, 1778, and when Deane landed in America it was
The Tn ing Recall 131
±. 1777 — -"
132 Silas Deane
Things go on worse and worse every day among
ourselves, and my situation is more painful. I see
in every department neglect, dissipation, and private
schemes. Being in trust here, I am responsible for
what I cannot prevent, and these very men will pro-
bably be the instruments of having me called to an
account for their misdeeds. There is but one way of
redressing this, and remedying the public evil, and
that is the plan I sent you before, of appointing the
Doctor to Vienna; Deane to Holland; Jennings to
Madrid, and leaving me here.
Lee's letters abound in vague charges, meager
hints at the facts, frequent references to plunder
and waste. One thing the scheming author
was clear about — France was the only place for
the play of his genius, he was the one man capable
of turning the "great wheel, " whose skillful revo-
lutions would transform chaos to order, and
usher in a new era in the annals of diplomacy;
and the recall of Silas Deane was a cog in the
political machinery of Arthur Lee.
CHAPTER IX
THE HOSTILITY OF CONGRESS
/CROSSING the Atlantic in Comte d'Estaing's
^^ flagship, in company with Gerard de Rayne-
val, the first French Minister to America, Deane
reached Philadelphia July lo, 1778, after a voyage
of ninety-one days, and reported to Congress two
days later.
A cordial greeting — a delegation from Congress,
salutes, soldiers drawn up in the streets — met the
Admiral and the Minister of our powerful ally. "I
had the honor of being present the last Sabbath,"
wrote Henry Marchant, a member of Congress
from Rhode Island, "at the most interesting inter-
view that ever took place in America, or perhaps
in the world, between Monsieur Gerard, the
plenipotentiary of France, and the president of
Congress .... This interview was most cordial,
generous, and noble. "
One would suppose that Silas Deane might
naturally expect an ovation equally cordial with
that of the Frenchmen, for through his energy,
133
134 Silas Deane
address, and watchfulness, combined with the
friendhness of Vergennes and the French Court,
and the activity of Beaumarchais, eight shiploads
of military supplies had been forwarded to the
American army for its campaign of 1777-8. He
had commissioned Pulaski, De Kalb, Lafayette,
and Steuben as major-generals; he had signed the
treaties of amity and commerce with Franklin
and Lee; last of all he had persuaded Vergennes
to send D'Estaing with a fleet of fourteen ships of
the line and several frigates, a force sufficient to
"" announce to the world that France was willing to
do her utmost to carry out the provisions of the
^ treaty.
Of this last achievement Deane wrote :
It was in my view sufficient to satisfy the utmost of
' my ambition or wishes. To this I applied myself and
"'was fortunately successful. It is no vanity or pre-
sumption to say that it was, next to concluding the
treaties, the greatest and most important service that
could in any circumstances be rendered to this country,
and the application was made and the design effected
by myself solely. These are facts, well known and
acknowledged even by my enemies.
Reaching Delaware Bay, July 10, he sent a
message to the president of Congress, announcing
his arrival, and that he should leave the ship in
the afternoon and go to Philadelphia; and as soon
Congress Hostile 135
as he had recovered from an intermittent fever he
would p^y his respects to Congress, and offer his
congratulations over the glorious events which had
recently occurred.
Henry Laurens, president of Congress, welcomed
Deane with all the cordiality and warmth of which
his solemn nature was capable; there were many
others, true friends, who congratulated Deane on
his success ; but the days went by, and there was no
invitation from Congress to make a report . Deane
sent word that he had recovered, and was ready
to tell of the state of affairs in Europe for which he
had been recalled. A month passed before any .
notice was taken of him, and on Aug. 15, it was
ordered that he be introduced to Congress.
The letters from Franklin and Beatimarchais
were read, expressing their confidence in Deane,
and their high appreciation of his work.
He gave some information concerning European
politics, and was ordered to attend on Monday,
Aug. 17, and again on Friday, Aug. 21.
On Sept. 8, he wrote to ask if further attend-
ance was required, but he received no reply.
On Sept. 8, he wrote John Hancock, declaring .
that his patience was worn out, that he could not
and would not longer endure a treatment which
carried with it marks of the deepest ingratitude,
136 Silas Deane
that if Congress had not time to hear a man who
came four thousand miles under the pretense of
receiving intelligence from him, it was time that
the good people of the Continent should know the
manner in which their representatives conduct
public business, and how they treat their fellow-
bitizens who have rendered the coimtry most im-
portant services. He said he knew that the
majority were disposed to do him justice, and they
complained of the delay, but a few men could put
off the decision of any question, by one means or
another, as long as they pleased.
On Sept. 18, the committee, to which had been
referred letters from Arthur Lee, reported. On
the same day a member in his place informed the
House that he had information that Carmichael
"had charged Deane with misappropriation of
public money. He was ordered to reduce the
charge to writing.
On Sept. 19, hostile letters from Izard were
introduced.
On Sept. 23, William Carmichael was sum-
moned to the bar and examined upon
oath.
On Sept. 24, Deane asked for copies of Izard's
letters.
On Sept. 28, Carmichael was questioned; no
Congress Hostile 137
opportunity was given Deane to explain, and no
direct charges or complaints were made.
It was perhaps about this time that Hosmer,
a member of Congress, whose failing health com-
pelled his resignation, told Deane of the con-
spiracy against him, of the poisoning of the minds
of many members by Arthur Lee, and of their pur-
pose to wear him out by repeated delays. He
said he had overheard some of Deane' s enemies
talking the matter over, and their plan was, not to
bring specific charges, but to destroy him by delay.
On Oct. 12, 1778, Deane sent to the president
of Congress answers to the letters of Arthur Lee
and Ralph Izard, and wrote that he had been three
months in attendance, that his health, interests, and
honor would not permit him to stay much longer
in America, that he wished to go into the country
the next day, and to engage passage for France for
the next month. We are not to think of Deane as
imagining for a moment that he was to serve again
as Commissioner ; John Adams had been chosen to
his place; but he had business in France which
demanded his attention.
But Congress took no definite action on his case,
though reminded repeatedly of Deane' s anxiety for
the closing of the case.
Deane said that in the letters of Izard there were
138 Silas Deane
charges against all the Commissioners, but that
'Lee had been left out wholly, and the blame had
been laid solely on Franklin and himself; and then
he proceeds to represent the Doctor as entirely
under Deane's influence.
''My situation," he wrote, "is peculiarly un-
fortimate; Izard's letters were written with as
much design of impeaching Franklin's conduct,
yet it operates solely against me."
Here is a sample of the contents of Izard's
letters: *'If the whole world had been searched it
would have been impossible to find a person more
imfit than Deane for the trust with which Congress
favored him." Such a statement was an insult to
the Committee, of which men of the judgment of
Morris and Dickinson were members ; a man who
could write such a statement would have no in-
fluence on fair-minded men.
One of the charges made by the gang of con-
spirators against Deane was that he had such
hauteur and presumption as to give offense to
every gentleman with whom he had any business.
To this Deane replied :
I appeal to the business I transacted. I arrived in
Paris in July without funds, uncertain of remittances,
without credit, ignorant of the language and manners
of France, an utter stranger to the persons in power
Congress Hostile 139
and influence in the Court; the news of our mis-
fortunes in Canada arrived in France before me, and
of subsequent misfortunes immediately after.
The artifices and opposition of the British had to
be overcome, yet before Dec. i, he had forwarded
thirty thousand stands of arms, an equal number
of suits of clothes, over two hundred and fifty
pieces of brass artillery ; tents and other stores to a
large amount had been shipped from the different
ports. Many of these supplies were in use against
Burgoyne; he had established a correspondence
with Holland, Russia, and other nations, and laid
the fotmdation for a grant of money from Versailles.
The second charge was, that Arthur Lee said
that his despatches to Congress had been opened
by Deane. Of this Deane said that Lee never in-
timated it to him, and it was a groundless caltimny.
On Oct. 12, Deane sent Congress a letter, in
which he took up Lee's charge, "that millions had
been spent, and almost everything remains to be
paid for. " In reply to this Deane insists:
Mr. Lee has in his hands the accounts of all the
monies received and paid out on the public account.
He knows that the total amount received by the
Commissioners, to the time of my leaving Paris, was
3'753> 250 livres, and the whole expense to that day
was 4,046,293 livres; the greater part of this was ex-
140 Silas Deane
pended by and with Mr. Lee's orders. The whole is
well known to him, and I sent him in writing an
explanation of every payment made in his absence.
What I have observed in Mr. Lee's letter confirms
me in the opinion, which Dr. Franklin and some others
have for some time had of him, that from a long in-
dulgence of his jealous and suspicious disposition and
habits of mind, he at last arrived on the very borders
of insanity, and at times he even passes that line;
and it gives me pleasure, though a melancholy one,
that I can attribute to the misfortune of his head what
otherwise I must place to a depravity of the heart.
Deane refutes the assertion of Lee that con-
tracts were concealed from him with the greatest
care, and adds; ''I never knew Mr. Lee satisfied
with any person he did business with, whether of
public or private nature, and his dealings, whether
for trifles or things of importance, almost con-
stantly ended in dispute and sometimes in litigious
quarrels."
Through tiresome months of the autumn and
winter of 1778, and on until more than a year had
gone by, Deane waited on Congress, compelled at
heavy expense to stay in Philadelphia, not knowing
on which day he might be simimoned : his business
suffering, all family claims put in the background,
appealing repeatedly for definite charges and for
the privilege of rendering his acco tints.
Congress Hostile 141
Years later he wrote from London that he had
duplicates of forty-two such urgent appeals he
made without avail. He was of course unable to
give all the details of his business transactions
with all the vouchers. He had not been asked to
do so in the letter recalling him. There was no
time to send to Strassburg, Marseilles, Nantes, for
the accounts of transactions, many of which he
carried through covertly to elude the English.
Vergennes insisted that he should go to America
secretly, and to call in the accoimts would have
constmied many weeks. He said he could account
for every farthing expended.
That Deane was not constantly brooding over
his trials appears from a letter to the president
of Congress dated November, 1778, in which he
makes suggestions on two important subjects : the
redemption of money — the paper issue of forty
millions; and also upon the establishment of a
marine. He urged that a fleet of forty sails be got
to sea the following year, and that a bank be
established in Europe by securing a loan of twenty-
five million dollars, and establishing a sinking
fimd to pay off principal and interest in sixteen
years. He argues against the plan of Congress to
repudiate the first issue and put out another, and
says, **I fear the result of a total bankruptcy,
142 Silas Deane
which to me appears more than probable in the
present plan/*
On Nov. 30, he writes his brother Barnabas of
his fears of a general bankruptcy, as the majority
of the members of Congress oppose the attempt
to make a foreign loan. He says he has made up
his mind to publish an account of his case ; he had
struggled long against it, but he had come to the
conclusion that it was his duty, perhaps one of the
last duties he could render his country, as it seemed
best to him to escape from the ingratitude from
which he was so keenly suffering: his wife had
died; his son was in France; the air was ftdl of
rumors which Lee, Izard, and the rest of the con-
spirators were industriously spreading, that Deane
had become enormously rich, and that his demand
for the settlement of the accounts and the pay-
ment of a large balance was ptire bluff. Congress
was at its wit's end to get money for the army.
Paper money was worth about ten cents on a
dollar, and before Deane returned to France it
shrank to five.
It was a dismal time for America. There were
two parties in Congress, the National and the
States Rights: prominent in the former were
Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Hancock, Morris,
Madison, Livingston, and the Virginia statesmen
Congress Hostile 143
generally ; leaders of the latter party were the Lees,
John Adams, and Samuel Adams. The last
named was friendly to the Lees from the first. It
was through his influence that Arthur Lee was
appointed to represent Massachusetts in London.
He was devoted to the project of exciting alarm
against Washington; he voted against every mea-
sure to increase Washington's influence. There
were days when no more than fifteen members
attended. There was a powerful faction which
aimed at the recall of Franklin and the election of
Arthiu* Lee in his place, and Lee was striking at
Franklin behind his back as hard as he dared.
Determined if possible to become the central
figure in Paris, which was the heart of political in-
fluence in Europe, Lee bent every nerve to imseat
the older and more eminent Commissioner; he
probably would have succeeded had it not been for
the direct and energetic influence of the French
Ambassador, M. Gerard. It is said that at one
time the majority to sustain Franklin was only one.
Gerard claims the honor of having defeated the
Lees. In one of his letters to Vergennes he says :
"The stories of Arthiir Lee are but an absurd
tissue of falsehoods and sarcasm, which can only
compromise those who have the misfortime of
being obliged to have anything to do with him."
144 Silas Deane
In another letter Gerard wrote :
I explained myself gradually, and not until the very
instant when it was indispensable to prevent this
dangerous and bad man (Arthur Lee) from displacing
Franklin, and being at the same time charged with
negotiations with Spain. I cannot conceal from you
that I rejoice every day more and more in having
been able to assist in preventing this misfortune.
The struggle was long, lasting through the
spring and a part of the summer of 1779, until the
country clamored for an end of strife. At length
Franklin was confirmed, and Arthur Lee, William
Lee, and Ralph Izard were recalled.
The fate of Deane was unlike that of Franklin ;
the conspiracy was too powerful, too subtle for
the former: whichever way the doomed man turned
he met hostility open or disguised. Congress was
crystallizing into two camps — those for Deane, and
those against him. This process was hastened by
an address by Deane Dec. 5, 1778, in the Phila-
delphia Packet, which we may label "War to the
Knife. " In it he said that he had been compelled
to take that course by the refusal of Congress to
consider his cause.
He said that he had been honored with one
colleague, and saddled with another; that the
Commissioners, believing that Lee could nowhere
Congress Hostile 145
be of less service than at Paris, had sent him to
Spain in February, where his wanton display of his
errand had given just offense. In May he had
gone to Germany, where he did nothing but lose
his papers.
In February, 1777, William Lee, an alderman of
London, and brother of Arthur, was appointed
commercial agent in France, and he was urged to
come at once to attend to matters of great moment.
He waited four months, and then went to Nantes,
where he declined to remedy certain affairs,
lest, as he admitted, his property in Eng-
land might be affected. Afterward, when he
was appointed Commissioner to the Courts of
Vienna and Berlin, he manifested his customary
appetite for graft.
These brothers, Arthur and William, he would
treat with tenderness as they had two brothers in
Congress, but candor compelled him to say that
they gave universal disgust to the nation whose
aid we solicited, through an undisguised hatred
and contempt for the French nation, which greatly
embarrassed the other Commissioners and preju-
diced their affairs.
He spoke of the opinion which many had of
Lee, that he was in league with the British Min-
istry through Lord Shelbume, his English patron.
146 Silas Deane
Lee was dragged into signing the treaties with
France with the greatest reluctance, and the
moment they were signed, though they were to be
kept a secret for a time, Lee's private secretary
hastened to England, and soon afterward Charles
James Fox, a friend of Lord Shelburne, publicly
declared their leading provisions in the House of
Commons.
He complains that while Congress had voted on
Dec. 8, 1777, to recall him, and he was ready early
in July with his report, Congress waited five weeks,
then gave him two hearings, on Aug. 19 and
2 1 , and he. had been unable to gain a third.
We can imagine the excitement this drastic
paper excited : John Adams piously desired that its
author be given over to Satan to buffet. It would
have seemed rather natural to Deane to have that
prayer answered, after his long experience with
Lee!
Gerard's comment is significant here in view of
the friendliness between the Lees and the austere
Adams statesmen. Gerard says that Deane pub-
lished a pamphlet which was not distasteful to
the plurality of Congress, wearied and ashamed of
the ascendancy of R. H. Lee and Samuel Adams.
We also bear in mind the fact that Lee secured
his appointment to London through Samuel Adams.
Congress Hostile 147
It may not be in good taste for us in this milder
age to criticize Deane for publishing such a letter ;
it was a time in which men used strong language
and called things and people by their correct
names, if they could think of words severe enough.
Deane had been stimg and goaded beyond en-
durance by the Lee party (I was tempted to say
''gang") ; the pent-up anger of years at last burst
forth. Deane knew he could not make things
worse; he thought that the doings of Congress,
sitting behind closed doors, its treatment of a man
who had conducted its business successfully in
Europe ought to be known by the public at large ;
he intended to publish further chapters, but did
not, for on Monday, Dec. 7, two days after the
letter was issued, Congress voted to call in Deane
and hear his story. But nothing came of it. Deane
was permitted to give driblets of information, but
no attempt was made to examine his case fairly.
A committee was appointed to investigate, but it
did not give him a hearing, or ask him a question.
Later in December, Deane was notified to attend
immediately; he did so, gave some information,
and was ordered to withdraw; it was voted that
he await further orders.
Our chief source of information upon that
stormy period is the newspapers, and the man who
148 Silas Deane
heartily enjoyed the tempest was Thomas Paine,
who was appointed secretary of the Committee of
Foreign Affairs, of which R. H. Lee was chairman.
He received a large bonus, so the report goes, and
proceeded to dip his pen in gall and falsehood after
the gentdne Arthur Lee style. Innuendo and sar-
casm, with a dash of bold lying, made him a vig-
orous defender of the Lees, and a bitter enemy of
Deane, until even his employers could not endure
him and he was discharged. Uvrl r^^ ^Amxa*^)
Here are samples of his brilliant genius: "There
is something in the concealment of the papers that
. looks like embezzlement." "From the pathetic
, manner in which Deane speaks of his sufferings it
appears that there is in this city a Book of Suffer-
ings in which he is registered. "
Robert Morris took up the defense of Deane:
said he was a man of honor and integrity. Then
Paine replied in the Philadelphia Packet, Jan. 12,
1779, saying: "The interest of Deane sat there in
^•^ ^ the person of his partner, Robert Morris, who, at
the same time that he represented the state, rep-
resented likewise the partnership in trade."
On Jan. 14, 1779, there appeared in the Packet
a card by Deane declaring that Paine's contention
was false in every part. Paine had said that only
one ship in three arrived with military supplies,
Congress Hostile 149
and that the Mercury and Seine fell into the hands
of the enemy, whereas eight ships sailed from
France with four million livres* worth of munitions
of war, and only one was seized by the English, the
Seine, after delivering a capital part of her cargo
at Martinico.
The profitless discussion went on for weeks ; back
and forth the hot words passed; about the only
good Deane received was an experience, which
taught him never to repeat the experiment of
getting justice by controversy in the newspapers.
Deane has been sharply criticized for his exposure
of the discord and strife among the Commissioners,
and for his serious charges against men high in
office, but we must remember that it was the crisis
of Deane's life. Called suddenly home from a high
office, to which he had been commissioned by five
of the leading men of the country, he was met by
delay and a vague atmosphere of suspicion. After
five months of humiliating and expensive waiting,
Deane was convinced that Hosmer's explanation
was correct, and that his enemies were seeking to
wear him out by delay.
The only serious charge against him was that
he had used his agency to advance his private
interests. In an article dated March 26, 1779,
Paine said: "It is a general belief that you ne-
150 Silas Deane
gotiated a proffered present amountirig to two
hundred thousand pounds into a purobhase, and
embezzled, or were privy to embezzling ^, the public
despatches to promote the imposition. ' *
It is hard to see how wild talk like thrs could
make any impression on considerate men; bjit no
doubt even they would say that where there was
so much smoke there must be a little fire.
There is an enlightening letter from James
Lovell to Franklin, dated May 15, 1778, in which
he speaks of the constraint brought to bear on
Congress to take the position it did toward Deane :
You have no adequate idea [he says] of the bold
claims and even threats which were made against
Congress, inducing the necessity of disavowing Mr.
Deane's agreements, and the consequently more dis-
agreeable necessity of recalling him. That gentle-
man's embarrassments have always been considered
as apologies for his compliances, and you may rely
upon it that imagined if not real necessity alone has
governed the decision of Congress with respect to him,
and that he will find congenial regard for the manner
in' which he has conducted our affairs abroad.
It is a relief to read this considerate statement of
a man so intelligent and able as the secretary of
Congress. It helps explain the fact that men like
Samuel Adams, despite Thomas Paine's bluster
Congress Hostile 151
and cry of fraud, played into the hands of the Lees,
Izards, and Carmichaels.
Arthur Lee, lago-like, had done his work only
too well. His brother Richard Henry was a good
second. Gerard's description of the latter is vivid :
*'He has a secret ambition and dissimulation equal
to that of the people of the East, and a rigidity
of manners and the gravity that is natural to
Presbyterians. He is laborious, intelligent, and
supple."
In a reply to this able chairman of the Com-
mittee on Foreign Relations, dated Jan. 26, 1779,
Deane refers to words in Lee's paper, ''libel,
fabulous, innuendo, caltimnies, " and says they
suggest the influence of Thomas Paine, who has
told the public that he for several years was your
intimate acquaintance.
You say [Deane continues]: "Had I winked at all
information of public abuse, I do not think I should
have incurred Mr. Deane's censure, but whilst I am
honored with public trust it shall be my constant
endeavor to prevent the community from being in-
jured, and certainly to insist that all those who have
fingered large sums of money should be called upon
for a fair and honest settlement."
Have I been charged with abuse of the public trust?
Has Congress or any one member brought forward
any such charge?
152 Silas Deane
You say: "Mr. Deane talks much about his great
services and good conduct, how happens it that of \
the four Commissioners besides himself, three are so
clear and strong in reprobating that conduct?"
Who are those three? Two are your brothers, and
the third not Dr. Franklin. Dr. Franklin's conduct
is as surely reprobated as mine.
Then he quotes Franklin, who said he had been
for fifteen months in the same house with Deane
and had always found him a faithful, active, and
able minister. Deane tells R. H. Lee that if
he told the whole he would have said: "Of four
Commissioners in public service, three, Mr. Arthur
Lee, Mr. Wm. Lee, and Mr. Izard, reprobate, the
fourth highly approves. "
Franklin's opinion is seen in a letter he wrote
about this time to Arthur Lee. There is less evi-
dence of the calmness and mildness of the patient
philosopher in it than in some of his other writings,
but we may believe that he had not lost his insight
or good judgment when he wrote Lee :
Your angry charge of "making a party business of
it" is groundless. You magnify your zeal to have
the public accounts settled, and insinuate that Mr.
Deane and I prevented it by taking possession of all
the vouchers and by taking constantly the public
papers to ourselves, which are the property of all the
Commissioners. When this comes to be read in the
Congress Hostile 153
Committee, for which it seems to be calculated rather
than for me, who know the circumstances, -what can
they understand by it but that you are the only care-
ful, honest man of the three; and that we have some
knavish reason for keeping the accounts in the dark,
and you from seeing the vouchers?
But the truth is the papers came into Mr. Deane's
hands and mine first, as he was engaged in pur-
chasing goods for Congress before either you or I
came into France; next, as somebody must keep the
papers, and you were either on long journeys or had a
commission to go and reside in Spain, whereas Mr.
Deane and I lived almost constantly in the same house
in Passy, we did most of the business. Where could
the papers be so properly placed as with us who had
daily occasion to use them?
I never knew you desired to have the keeping of
them. You were never refused a paper. You ask
why I act so inconsistently with my duty to the public.
This is a heavy charge. Sir, which I have not deserved.
To the public I am accountable, and not to you. I
have been a servant to many publics through a long
life; have served them with fidelity and honored ap-
probation. There is not a single instance of my ever
being accused before of acting contrary to their inter-
ests or my duty. I shall account to Congress when
called upon for this my terrible offense of being silent
to you.
It is true I have omitted answering some of your
letters, particularly your angry ones in which you,
with very magisterial airs, schooled me, as if I had
been one of your domestics. I saw your jealous,
suspicious, malignant, and quarrelsome temper, which
was daily manifesting itself against Mr. Deane, and
154 Silas Deane
almost every other person you had any concern with.
I therefore passed your affronts in silence, I did not
answer, but burnt your angry letters, and received
you with the same civility as if you had not written
them. Perhaps I may still pursue the same conduct.
At another time FranMin wrote Lee :
I do not know that either Mr. Deane or myself ever
showed any unwillingness to settle the public accounts.
You could at any time have obtained the accounts
as readily as either of us, and you had abundant more
leisure. If on examining them, you had wanted ex-
planations on any article, you might have called for
it and had it: you never did either. As soon as I
obtained the account, I put it into your hands, and
desired you to look into it, and I have heard no more
of it till now.
The bitterness of those miserable days, and the
ease with which the mind of a good man could be
poisoned, is seen in the following quotation from
the immortal diary of that high-minded John
Adams, who was a better man than any one else
was in his judgment capable of being. He wrote
in his diary Feb. 8, 1779, his opinion of Deane's
address, that it was
the most wicked and abominable production that
ever sprang from a human heart. He appeared to me
in the light of a wild boar, that ought to be hunted
down for the benefit of mankind. I have given him
up to Satan to be buffeted. There are certain in-
Congress Hostile 155
fallible proofs of vanity, presumption, ambition,
avarice, and folly in Mr. Deane as to render him un-
worthy of confidence, and therefore Dr. Franklin has
been deceived.
The only comment upon this childish opinion of
Adams is to put by the side of it his opinion, when ^\-l,^^ { g^^i
he took the office left vacant by Deane, that Deane i i^c^vx^ ^^ ^
had fulfilled his mission ably and well. ^ ^ ^=*"'
On April 17, 1779, Deane wrote Congress that
his family had suffered much by his absence, he
wished to leave the city the next week.
On May 22, he wrote the president of Congress :
Conversing with an honored friend, I asked him how
it was possible that when there was so much to do in
France I had been ordered home. He answered that
it was the design of those who wished to sacrifice me to
family interests to wear me out,by delays, and, without
any direct charges, to ruin me in the opinion of my
countrymen by insincere hints and innuendoes. I
was unable then to think my friend's suspicions
correct, yet now they are confirmed.
On Jime 10, a motion was made that Deane
should not depart, and that Arthur Lee be recalled,
but it did not pass. ^,^^
The comment of Henry Laurens,^ President of
Congress, is significant: "If Deane goes in de-
fiance of Congress, it will be a confession."
About the only consolation Deane had in that
156 Silas Deane
period was the satisfaction of being several thou-
sand miles distant from Arthur Lee, whose
presence with him in Paris had brought on a
premature Purgatory. But Lee's spell was on
Congress, and still it delayed action.
Vergennes wrote Oct. 29, 1778, "I fear Mr. Lee
and those about him. ..." and this consideration
induced the Cotut at Versailles to keep secret
from Arthtu* Lee the intended sailing of Count
d'Estaing, and on several occasions he created
the highest disgust at Versailles. The Court of
Madrid had the same opinion of him. Mr. S.
Nicholson wrote William Carmichael: "I have
heard Dr. Franklin say he thought Arthur Lee
was crazy, and I am sure it was current enough
at Nantes."
There must have been method in a madness
which could so thoroughly undermine the reputa-
tion of such a man as Deane ; but Laurens, president
of Congress, though apparently an effusive friend,
was at heart a deadly enemy; the Lees, Izard,
Carmichael, Col. Duer, Tom Paine, Samuel
Adams, and some others worked together, and
while, as Gerard said, the majority in Con-
gress was in favor of Deane, his enemies were
strong and skillful enough to lay every motion
which looked toward action on the table, and at
Congress Hostile i57
the same time hinder every effort toward definite
charges.
It was a brilliant example of malice and petti-
fog triumphing over a man whom circumstances
had put into the power of a combination of deter-
mined men, who, with greater or less sincerity, set
aside all principles of justice, all rules of equity, all
motives of gratitude, all feelings of compassion,
and even of sympathy, and condemned a public
officer, uncharged and unheard, for crimes ex-
ploited by innuendo and insinuated by clandestine
hate. On Aug. 6, 1779, Congress voted to dis-
charge Deane from further attendance, and the
several agents and Commissioners were ordered to
send in, without delay, their accounts and vouchers
for settlement.
On Aug. 16, Deane sent Congress a memorial,
recounting the main facts of his mission, and urging
that some one be appointed to audit his accotmts
and pay the balance, as his private fortune had
suffered seriously because of his service for the
public.
On Aug. 26, he received an order from the con-
tinental treasurer for ten thousand five hundred
dollars, "in full consideration of time and expenses
during attendance on Congress from June 4, 1778,
to Aug. 6, 1779." Paper money was worth five
158 Silas Deane
cents on a dollar, and Deane refused this pittance
as wholly inadequate and unfair.
On Nov. 16, Deane wrote Congress expressing
his zeal for his country, and his purpose soon to
return to France to vindicate that which was
dearer than life or fortune, — his honor and
character.
He left America June 14, 1780, assured that his
accounts would be audited on presentation with
vouchers; he reached France, July 27, and was
received by Franklin to his lodgings.
The most vivid imagination cannot exaggerate
the keenness of Deane' s disappointment at the
outcome of his stay in Philadelphia.
He came after two years' absence, conscious
that he had well fulfilled the charge of the Com-
mittee; he was on board D'Estaing's flagship, in
company with his friend Gerard, the Minister,
whose coming had been made possible by the
treaty which Deane had the honor to sign.
He came to a city of which he wrote a year
later :
It may at this instant be truly said there are few
unhappier cities on the globe than Philadelphia: the
reverse of its name is its present character. It is a
melancholy reflection to think that, whilst our
common enemy is wasting our seacoasts and laying
Congress Hostile 159
our fairest and most peaceable towns in ashes, we are
quarreling among ourselves, and can scarcely be con-
strained from plunging our swords into each other's
bosoms.
He came to meet the coolness, the averted faces,
the hostility of the Congress, where he had been a
peer of the best statesmen of America, before the
reign of selfish cabals and the junto rule.
He was compelled to stand at the closed doors of
that Congress and plead for a hearing; he was
compelled to endure the ignominy of groundless
charges, made through venomous rimior and
underhanded spite.
During the fourteen months of waiting on men
whose indifference and neglect were cruel and
heart-breaking, he was summoned but twice to
meet the Congress that had recalled him upon a
pretense; he was treated like a criminal, without
a criminal's opportunity to hear the charges and
answer the complaint.
No wonder deep-seated discouragement was
planted in his mind.
CHAPTER X
DEANE's second mission to FRANCE A FAILURE
T^HE warning of Deane's friend Hosmer, that
the conspirators would *'wear him out by
delay," was coming true. Compare his prospects
and courage when he went out in 1776, or when he
returned in 1778, with his feelings when he went to
France in 1780, after two years of the most anxious
and harassing struggle, disappointment, hostility,
and ingratitude.
It is true that he was relieved of the daily
irritations of Arthur Lee's suspicious and schem-
ing presence, but there were allies of Lee who
thwarted Deane at every turn. He missed the
wise and genial friendliness of Franklin, but he
enjoyed the confidence of Robert Morris, who
wrote Jay, Aug. 16, 1778: "Many persons whom
you know are very liberal of illiberality. Your
friend Deane, who hath rendered the most essential
services, stands as one accused. The storm in-
160
Second Mission to France i6i
creases, and I think some one of the tall trees
must be torn up by the roots."
The next month Morris wrote: "I think our
friend Deane has much public merit, has been
ill-used, but will rise superior to his enemies."
Morris knew what it was to pass through a
storm of calimmy and detraction, as did Washing-
ton and Franklin, but Deane's situation was
peculiarly unfortunate, because of the combination
of personal ambition and prejudice, financial de-
pression, and the complicated system whereby the
supplies were secured. Deane was waiting on
Congress at its ebb-tide, — a time partially ex-
plained by Prof. W. G. Simmer in his Finances of
the Revolution, when he says, ^'The failure of
requisitions in the American Revolution must be
referred to the all-pervading lack of organization
and the low vitality of the Union."
He came hither in d'Estaing's flagship with
Gerard, the French minister ; he went back after a
vain attempt to sweep away a poisoned atmos-
phere of innuendo and malice.
The one thing, which proved to be in the same
class with the rest of his treatment at the hands of
Congress, was the assurance of Congress that
an officer would be appointed to examine and pass
upon his accounts.
i62 Silas Deane
He carried a letter which Morris wrote him
March 31, 1780, in which he said:
Reflecting on the unrestricted abuse you have
suffered, and not knowing whether you have any
evidence with you to show that your particular friends
were not infected with the pestilence of the times, I
have suddenly and hesitatingly scribbled a letter to
Dr. Franklin, in which I have expressed pretty con-
cisely the sentiments due to him, you and myself. I
consider that we have been fellow-laborers in the
vineyard, and although our works speak for them-
selves before that impartial Master, who knows all
actions, and the secret springs that give rise to them,
yet the evidence of one honest man in favor of an-
other is but too often necessary to protect virtue and
innocence against the shaft of malice and envy in
this short-sighted world.
Morrises letter to Franklin has the same date as
the above, and in it we read :
I do not know that what I am going to write is
necessary, or that Mr. Deane will thank me, but he
has always manifested a warm attachment to your
person and character before Congress; it might be
some satisfaction to you and him to have a testimony
of this kind from a friend to you both, who, having
nothing to seek or ask for yourself, can mean nothing
but to promote that harmony and friendship which
he wishes to continue between two worthy men. I
consider Mr. Deane as a martyr in the cause of
America. After rendering the most signal and im-
portant services, he has been reviled and traduced in
Second Mission to France 163
the most shameful manner. But I have not a doubt
the day will come when his merit shall be universalh^
acknowledged, and the authors of those calumnies
held in the detestation they deserve.
My own fate has been in some degree similar.
After four years of indefatigable service, I have been
reviled and traduced for a long time by whispers
and insinuations, which at length were fortunately
wrought up to public charges, which gave me an
opportunity to show how groundless, how malicious
these things were ; how innocent and honest my trans-
actions. My enemies, ashamed of their persecutions,
have quitted the pursuit, and I am in peaceable
possession of the most honorable station my ambi-
tion aspires to. that of a private citizen of a free
state. Yourself, my good Sir, have had a share in
these calamities, but the malice, which gave them
vent, was so e\ddent, as to destroy its own poison:
they could not cast even a cloud over your justly and
much-revered character. These things have taught
me a lesson of philosophy, which may be of ser\4ce.^
I find most useful members of society have most
enemies, because there is a number of envious beings
in human shape; and if m}' opinion of mankind in
general is grown worse from my experience of them,
that very circumstance raises my veneration for those
characters that justly merit the applause of virtuous
men. In this light I view Dr. Franklin and Mr.
Deane, and under this view of them I assert, with
an honest confidence, that I have a just and equit-
able title to a return of that friendship which I
think is honorable to profess for them, \\4th that
degree of truth and affection which impresses me
with it.
i64 Silas Deane
Deane's temper as he set out on his second mis-
sion to Europe is suggested in a letter to his brother
Barnabas, written two months before he sailed:
I hope in ten days to set my face for Europe. My
heart has long been sick, not of America, but with
distress for her. . . . You will think that I write in
a desponding turn of mind. I do not, but I am not
gay. A consciousness of the rectitude of my intentions
supports me, and I trust will to the last, whatever
may happen.
Unable to leave the country at the time ap-
/ pointed, he wrote April 23, to a friend: "I leave
the country with a heavy and foreboding heart : I
have had the fortune of Cassandra hitherto; my
dictions have been universally disbelieved and
-' disregarded, and yet tinfortunately have been
fulfilled."
In a letter to Joseph Webb Jime 20, 1780, he
speaks of his anxiety concerning the Webb family,
and says :
The comfort I receive from a clear conscience affords
me some cheerful moments in the darkest scenes . . .
I hope in a year or two we can meet in peace and at
ease, but if not, He who directs knows best. I go
perfectly resigned to my fate, whatever it may be in
my voyage, and therefore am not so unhappy as I
should otherwise be.
To keep our narrative clearly in mind, we outline
Second Mission to France 165
again the case as Deane understood it in his de-
mands upon Congress. In his last letter to Con-
gress before sailing, he wrote that he agreed with
the Secret Committee that his expenses should be
borne, and a commission of five per cent, allowed.
Unable, because of lack of funds, to buy many of
the goods ordered, he devoted himself to the
purchase of arms, clothing, and cannon, and he
engaged in no private, commercial business. The
commission on the goods bought, up to the time
he was appointed to act jointly with Franklin and
Lee, amounted to seventy-eight thousand seven
hundred dollars. He also purchased and fitted out
fifteen ships, most of them being large ships, and
only one miscarried. He was often embarrassed
and hard-pressed for money, and, but for repeated
and in-gent application to certain great personages,
he would have been landed in ruin. The amount
of goods, stores, and ships purchased by him
amounted to over two million dollars, nearly all
of which landed safely in America, the only ship
that was lost went to Martinique, contrary to his
orders.
Soon after he reached Paris he received a letter
from Robert Morris which must have cheered him.
It is dated Philadelphia, July 3, 1780. Morris
says:
^/
i66 Silas Deane
You will steadily pursue the object that induced you
to return to Europe, which wUl enable you to set your
transactions for America in that just and fair light
in which they ought to stand, and give you that high
share of merit with your country that I do most
firmly believe to be justly your due. I am deter-
mined to keep myself clear of all that public employ-
ment which exposes an honest m.an to the env}' and
jealousy of mankind, at the same time that it lays
him open to the malicious attacks of every dirty
scoundrel that deals in the murder of reputation.
There are two grains of comfort in Deane's
letter of Aug. 4 to his brother Simeon. He
says that he finds his son Jesse just what he could
wish him to be ; the other is that Arthur Lee had
sailed to America three weeks before. "He has
gone," Deane writes, "charged with all the maHce
and revenge which hell is capable of inspiring him
with, and for me. I am determined to fight my
adversaries, in Congress and out, to the last, and
in a manner that will not cause my friends to
blush."
On reaching Paris, Deane did not find that his
reputation had suitered from the abuse he had
received in America, but he did find that the devo-
tion of France was cooling, and that the repudi-
ation resolutions of Congress of March 18 had
rained our credit in Europe.
Second Mission to France 167
On Sept. 18 he wrote Jay that it was almost
as much a disgrace to be known to be an Ameri-
can, as it was two years before to be an honor;
that "Fraudtilent, "Bankrupt," were the adjec-
tives used to stigmatize the insurgents. He says :
I krovr the vreakness of Congress, and the malignity
of Lee and his associates, but the situation of America
wrings my soul: ruined by weak, distracted counsels,
and betrayed by those in whom she has confided.
May \-ou, my worthy friend, be so happy as never to
experience how painful and how cutting it is to be
treated with public ingratitude, edged and driven on
by the treachery of those in whom 3-0U have con-
fided; you merit a better fate, but that will not secure
3-0U, without the prudence, of which \-ou happily have
so great a portion, and of which I have so Httle.
France rings with complaints of heavy losses of mer-
chants by the depreciation of America.
Many had put large sums in the Loan Office
when American paper money was worth twenty-
five cents on a dollar, but the resolution of March
18 and the circular letter of September fixed the
pai)er money at two and a hah* cents, and in effect
prevented an}' appreciation from that: and the
merchants in France drew the inference that, if
Congress could annihilate thirty-nine fortieths of
their notes, nothing prevents their extinguishing
the residue.
i68 Silas Deane
The fact that Deane's own property, which
amounted to more than fifteen thousand dollars,
when he rettimed to Europe, was rapidly diminish-
ing, did not increase his cheerfulness.
A letter from John Jay of Oct. 26, 1 780, contains
a plain recital of the charge against Deane in
America. "You were blamed," Jay wrote, "not
for omitting finally to settle your accounts in
France, but for not being in a capacity to show,
when in America, how far your measures were
prudent. I think some of them were, and some
were not." Jay criticizes him for feeling resent-
ful toward the American people, but gently adds:
"There are comparatively not many who, imder
similar circimistances, either think right, or act so.
I believe you honest, and I think you injured."
He lu-ges Deane to sift and discover the exact
evidence concerning the duplicity of his enemies.
In reply, Deane said he had given the accounts,
so far as he could, without actual and minute
settlement ; that within six weeks of his arrival he
had laid before Congress an authentic account of
all moneys received or paid out, and a general
account of what they had been paid for.
He thanks Jay for questioning the prudence of
some of his measures, adding :
Second Mission to France 169
I confess, on reflection, I do not approve of all the
measures I took, but they were such as the time
dictated, and such as at the time I thought most
prudent. Though, viewed at this distance, they may
be deemed less prudent than they really were, I find
most of them produced real benefits to America, and
that the worst consequences of any of them have
fallen solely on myself.
Who can deny the justice of the complaint
that follows? ** Allowing some or all of my mea-
sures to have been imprudent, still my complaint
lies against Congress, for not informing me of what
I had done wrong, that I might have had an oppor-
tunity of vindicating myself in the best manner
in my power."
Then he gives another evidence of the conspiracy
which had drawn its malignant nets around him,
saying :
With respect to the duplicity of some of my pre-
tended friends in Congress, I had some suspicion be-
fore I left America, and since, I have full proof of it.
Letters sent from hence with express orders to be com-
mitted to me, and to be made use of in Congress for
my justification, were suppressed. I know they were
received, and I have copies of them, which is more.
The persons capable of this, who appeared on all occa-
sions publicly to support me against the Lee faction,
since the displacing of those men, have declared that
they had no view of serving me or my cause, but to
make use of both to destroy the Lee interests.
I70 Silas Deane
Then follows a gloomy prophecy; the suffering
had been so long and so continuous that his brave
heart was bending.
I have nearly finished [he wrote] the settlement of
my accounts and those of the Commission, the result
of which is a large balance in my favor. Will this
establish my reputation, and procure justice for in-
juries I have received in character and fortune? I
do not flatter myself with any such hope.
The reason for this desponding mood is clear-
sighted and convincing :
The men to whom I am to apply for this justice are
those who have injured me, and, in doing it, must
condemn themselves — a self-denial or heroism not to
be expected from them; but, supposing them capable
of this, will it recall the envenomed shafts of calumny
shot at me from behind their shield? I grant that
the bulk of the people mean well, but from a suspicion
that the greater part of men in public employ are dis-
honest, a suspicion at this time more prevalent with
the people of America than with any other, you will
find fifty, nay one hundred, who will receive with open
ears a calumny, and will propagate the same with as
much industry as if their character and interest de-
pended on its being spread and believed — to a single
one who will take any pains to undeceive himself and
others.
He adds that many in Congress knew that he
entered public service with fair character and easy
Second Mission to France 171
fortune, and all America knew that, however im-
prudent some of his meastires appear, he rendered
essential service to his country. The French
officers he commissioned either did good service,
or were sent home; yet Congress refuses to do
anything to rescue his reputation, investigate the
charges, or rescue the fortune spent in its service,
A few days later he writes John Paul Jones a
letter of sympathy and appreciation of his ardor
and patriotism. Jones had suffered from Arthur
Lee's selfishness and discourtesy.
There is a letter of Beaumarchais to Vergennes
of the date of Dec. 2, 1780, which shows how the
clouds of trouble are gathering about Deane.
The men to whom he had intrusted his money
failed him, some of them dishonestly, and the de-
preciation in America weakened him. Beaumar-
chais says:
Poor Mr. Deane, brought to Europe to conclude all
business he had undertaken for Congress, and expect-
ing to find funds to enable him to live here until his
return, or the settlement of his accounts would re-
imburse him for all his advances, now finds himself
without the means of subsistence; he has applied to
Dr. Franklin, but he has no authority for furnishing
money. I am the only person to whom he has entirely
confided, and he shows a bitterness that borders on
something worse. I am so embarrassed, I can offer
him only temporary assistance.
172 Silas Deane
What follows, Beatimarchais would probably
have put stronger ten years later, after his own
trying experience of the ingratitude of a re-
public. "After his departure I reflected that it
was perhaps a grave political error to drive to
desperation those who have rendered important
service to the state, as the contemptible new re-
publican country does to all deserving men who
have forwarded her interests. "
On Feb. 23, 1781, Deane wrote his brother
Simeon a gloomy letter. He thinks that no more
troops or money can be secured from France, and
with neither money, nor credit, nor friends, in-
dependence is out of the question. He complains
that, while he has nearly closed his accounts, the
auditor, Mr. Johnson, whom Congress had ap-
pointed, had declined to act. Deane does not
know what to do ; some days he thinks he will
return to America with his accounts, but the un-
certainty deters him. He fears the coming sea-
son will increase the distraction and distress. The
war between England and Holland is unfavorable
to us, for France and Spain depend largely on
Holland for supplies. He learns that England
is in high spirits, and has nearly one hundred
men-of-war on the stocks, and forty ships of the
line building.
Second Mission to France 173
Out of the depression of an empty pocket, and
the cloud of calumny that was about him, he adds :
" Unless our finances can be well established, army
increased and supported, and national and internal
forces of the Continent brought to act with con-
sistency and energy, the game will soon be up.'*
He writes his brother Barnabas that balances
have been refused him imtil the original vouchers
have been examined in Philadelphia. ''Judge my
feelings and suffering!" he exclaims.
A wholesome letter from John Jay of the date
of Mar. 28, 1 78 1, reached Deane in the midnight
of his depression. Would that its wise counsels
had been followed ! As is apt* to be the case imder
such conditions, Deane was talking too much.
Jay writes : ^
Mr. Carmichael has been informed (I believe by
letter from some person in France) that you had, in
some late conversation on American affairs, spoken
much to their disadvantage, and in a manner very dis-
couraging. You must be sensible that such reports
will be no less prejudicial to you in America than in
Europe. Your reasons for not publishing your de-
fense at present, do you honor. Let me advise you,
however, to omit no opportunity of authenticating
the facts essential to it, and to hold yourself constantly
in readiness to seize the first proper opportunity of
convincing the world, that you merit the thanks, not
the reproaches, of your country. I believe you inno-
:^
174 Silas Deane
cent of the malversations imputed to you, and I feel
for you the sympathy which such an opinion must
create in every honest mind. In this enHghtened
age, when the noise of passion and party shall have
subsided, the voice of truth will be heard and attended
to. It is too true that mere private altercations have
little effect upon the public mind, few thinking it
worth their while to examine the merits of a dispute
important only to the parties. This is not your
case: your commission, and the manner in which it
was executed, will ever be interesting to America,
and therefore America will ever be ready to hear
your cause, and to determine it justly according to
evidence.
The opinion of the great jtirist has been justified,
but the verification came too late for the relief of
Deane. Fifty years after his death the accounts
were thoroughly sifted, and his cause established.
In a letter to Jay of April 8, 1781, speaking of
Jay's criticism upon his disparaging remarks about
America, which tended to discourage and preju-
dice, Deane says he only spoke the truth, and he
thought it far wiser to do that than follow the
method of many like Searles, a member of Con-
gress, who, while in Europe, gave such a rose-col-
ored view of our affairs, that the French were led
to imagine that we had little need of further help.
Perhaps Deane went to the opposite extreme:
he certainly had an experience of his own, which
Second Mission to France 175
made it possible for him to draw a dark picture.
He admits that he told Vergennes five months
before, that nothing short of money to support
army and navy could save America; that our
finances were totally deranged, commerce nearly
ruined, naval force next to nothing, army suffering
for lack of pay and clothing, and instant relief
absolutely necessary. A letter from Washing-
ton about the same time to Vergennes justified
Deane's contention, and fixed the relief of America
solely on a supply of money for the army, and also
a superior naval force, without which the cause
of the colonists must soon fall.
A glimpse of the widespread conspiracy to ruin
Deane is seen in a letter from Jonathan Williams,
an honest American. The letter is dated at
Nantes, April 18, 1781, in which he speaks of
Thomas Paine, then in Europe, as an enemy of
Deane and friend of the Lees and Izard, and says
he hopes that after a longer stay there he will
become acquainted with the Lee rascalities, and,
like all other good men, despise the wretch. '
On May 15, 1781, Deane wTote Congress that
Johnson, who had been appointed to examine his
accotmts, declined to serve. Deane again reviews
the case and entreats Congress to do him the-
justice he seeks.
176 Silas Deane
My enemies [he laments] represented me as a
defaulter, grown rich out of the public moneys in my
^ hands, and prejudiced the minds of Congress so strongly
, against me, that my efforts in America to obtain even
- a hearing were vain and ineffectual. My present
condition, as well as state of my accounts, gives the
lie to every assertion or insinuation of that kind;
yet I am still left to suffer under the calumny in
America and to be obliged to strangers for money
for my support.
^ In those dark days of poverty and worry in
'' Paris, as he walked through the gay streets, or
brooded in his lodgings, a letter came from Robert
Morris, dated June 7, 1781, which must have com-
forted him. Morris rejoices to hear of Deane 's
safe arrival in France, because it will
enable you to justify by incontestable facts and
proofs that character which has been so exceedingly
traduced, and which I long to see placed in that respec-
table and meritorious point of view, which I believe
it deserves; and the sooner you show your conduct
in regard to money matters to have been strictly con-
sistent with that honor and integrity, that I believe
to have attended you through life, the better; as
the infamous behavior of Arnold has put a weapon
into the hands of your enemies, which they make use
of to this day by giving you now and then a slashing
stroke, in coupling his name and yours together in
their publications, and always effecting to speak of
you as a condemned man.
Second Mission to France i77 ^
Morris refers to his recent appointment to the
office of ''Superintendent of Finance," and closes
with : " I long to see the day when you shall honor-
ably remove those aspersions which have been
cast, and those suspicions that have been raised,
by your rancorous enemies. "
In June, Deane wrote his brother Simeon of
his disappointment in his attempt to settle with
M. Sabatier.
A month later he wrote Jay a gloomy letter
in which he spoke of his thankfulness that he had
not been prejudiced against his old friend by
Carmichael. He adds: "Spain is not friendly to
us; Holland has refused to receive Adams's
credentials, nor can we raise money there. I set
out to-morrow for a tour of the Netherlands and
Holland/'
Learning early in September that Arthur Lee's
accounts, though neither audited in Europe nor
offered for audit, had been passed by the board
of accounts in Philadelphia, Deane was encour-
aged to write Morris, enclosing his accoimts,
though without the vouchers, as he had no dupli-
cates; he explained in detail the whole situation:
that his commission was only upon the goods /
bought prior to his election as Commissioner with'
Franklin and Lee, and was according to a contract
178 Silas Deane
with the Secret Committee. He said that he
might have taken his pay out of the funds in his
hands, as others had done, but he had preferred
to leave the settlement to Congress.
''Some," he says, "acted differently, and find
themselves at easy circumstances, uncensured by
Congress or public voice. Had I done the same,
I might possibly have escaped the obloquy thrown
on me, at least I should have escaped the distress
the last two years involved. "
After a year of fruitless endeavor in Paris to
obtain a settlement, there came to Deane a letter
from Beaimiarchais, which exposes the emptiness
of some of Lee's lies. Reviewing Deane's mission
to buy supplies without resources or credit, other
than the authority of his credentials, he writes:
I recall the ardor, the care, the persistency, and
the exertions with which you commenced, continued,
and finally concluded the delicate task of forwarding
the consignments prepared by me for shipment to
America. If your enemies have subsequently suc-
ceeded in belittling the value of your political or
commercial services in the opinion of those whom you
represented, it is a misfortune for your country and
for you ; and as witness of your exertions to serve your
country, I cannot but deplore it.
It was these very services that inspired me with the
greatest regard, esteem, and friendship for you, es-
pecially, since our ministry and all intelligent men in
Second Mission to France 179
our nation have, in common with myself, invariably
recalled your sagacity, ability, and irreproachable
conduct. I recall that you inadvertently mentioned
that Congress promised you a commission of five per
cent., I suspect that you are anxious for the fulfillment
of the promise ; I cannot hear without distress that the
first representative, and one whose ability and ex-
ertions have rendered me efficient aid, should remain
without sufficient remuneration. I have therefore
decided to offer you two per cent, commission on all
returns I may receive from Congress, whether money
or goods of the ten per cent, allowed me, in case Con-
gress absolutely refuses you any commission. This
will be a poor return for your trouble.
This was a kind and generous letter, and the
offer does credit to Beaumarchais' noble heart,
but how little he realized how keen was to be his
own suffering at the hands of the Congress, which
permitted Deane to endure such misery ; and that
fifty years would pass before his own daughter
would receive even a quarter of the just dues of
her father, dying in poverty a generation before.
On Sept. 13, Deane wrote his brother Barnabas
that he was ill with fever.
My patience is exhausted [he says] and my affairs
ruined by the unexampled conduct of Congress,
who have detained me here, — it is now more than a
year, — waiting for the appointment of an auditor to
settle my accounts, which in reality I believe they
never wish or desire to have settled.
i8o Silas Deane
On Sept. 19, 1 78 1, Deane wrote James Wilson
of the financial discouragements and losses he had
sustained: everything on which he had built his
hopes had failed — the mast contracts, Loan
Office certificates, and the appointment of an
auditor.
At the close, he said he believed De Grasse and
Rodney had both gone to the Continent. He
was mistaken there. How different would have
been his expectation for America, could he have
seen that at that time De Grasse was on his way
from the West Indies to Yorktown with a powerful
fleet and large reinforcements of soldiers, and
that within a month Cornwallis would surrender.
On Sept. 26, he wrote his brother Barnabas of
the gloomy prospects for America and of his
unhappiness.
On the same date he wrote John Jay of the
newspapers coupling him with Duane and Arnold,
and says he thinks that the licentiousness in
stigmatizing men in public trust with the vilest
and most abusive epithets and characters, a fatal
symptom of the universal anarchy, which is more
to be dreaded than monarchy at the door.
On Oct. 20, he wrote from Ghent to Benj.
Tallmadge, lamenting the prospect of dependence
on France, which had twenty thousand veterans in
Second Mission to France i8i
America, and says he may remain two or three ^
months in Ghent ; he is sick of Paris though treated
there with generosity and kindness.
This brings us to the critical and dangerous
attitude which Deane took in the fateful summer of
1 78 1, when burdened by illness, worry, and pov-
erty ; heart-sick with the long delay of Congress ; his
courage weakened by his struggle with the veno-
mous and underhanded conspiracy, he wrote
letters which followed him to his lonely grave in
the old churchyard in the town of Deal on the -^
south coast of England.
CHAPTER XI
deane's republicanism weakens
nPHE gloom gathering in the mind of Deane
through multiplying misfortunes, and brood-
ing over the condition of his country, found ex-
pression in the early summer of 1 78 1 , in nine letters
which he wrote to friends in America, in which he
gave expression to suggestions, damaging to him-
self, and, had they been adopted, most injurious
to his country.
They are the so-called *' Paris Papers," other-
wise known as the "Intercepted Letters." They
were written to intimate friends, with no expec-
tation that they would sway the fortunes of
America, — a supposition requiring an egotism in
Deane, of which we have no evidence elsewhere.
The question why he wrote the letters must be
laid aside with the question why many of us,
when tired, nervous, and discouraged, do not keep
quiet.
The vessel, which sailed from L'Orient in June,
1 78 1, carrying those missives of a mind hurt by
182
Discouraged 183
ingratitude and disappointment, beginning to feel
the iron of three long years of conspiracy and
enmity entering the very heart of courage and
enterprise, was captured by the British.
They were published by the Rivingtons, a
Tory firm of New York, in The Royal Gazette, and
afterwards in book form.
The first is dated June 14, 1781, Paris, and was
addressed to Col. Wm. Duer, whom Deane then
believed to be his friend.
He asks why continue the war. Congress is
weakened by cabals and mismanagement. "Let
them acknowledge their inability," he writes,
"weigh fairly the probable chances of success to
establish Independent Sovereignty, and if they
find the probability against it, honestly confess it
and put an end to the calamities of the country. "-
He speaks of his dismal fate to play the Cassandra,
and prophesy disaster, and adds, "The cold hand
of despair is upon me. "
On June i , he wrote Robert Morris of the folly
of continuing a process of exhausting and ruining
one another.
Who will be the gainers? he asks. Will sovereignty,
in the hands of a democracy, be a government
under which our persons and property will be better
secured than before the contest began? Will the
i84 Silas Deane
country flourish more under independency, than
while connected with Great Britain?
In reading these words in the light of succeeding
history, we need to make a distinct effort to place
ourselves at the point of view of a man who for
three years had tried in vain to persuade Congress
to take the first steps toward fair dealing; a
^man, who had been a member of that legislative
body, had been commissioned by a committee of
its ablest men, and had successfully performed the
task given him in France, in the judgment of Ver-
gennes, Franklin, Jay, and Morris.
Deane had many needless fears about the
commerce of the country, believing that the enmity
of Great Britain would be a serious menace to it.
He is convinced that England could hurt us by
duties, restrictions, and prohibitions far more than
France could help us.
Speaking of the complaint that England in-
cluded America in the Navigation Act, he says that
we shared in the protection of the British navy,
which grew strong enough to defend us as the result
of that policy. We complained that we were re-
strained from carrying certain articles to other mark-
ets, but British subjects were generally restrained
from importing the same from other countries, and
England gave us the monopoly of her markets.
Discouraged 185
We were prohibited from taking from foreigners
articles we wanted, though not the growth or
fabric of England, but these were very inconsider-
able. Goods made in England are more solid
and substantial than others. The complaint
that England does not allow foreigners to bring
their produce and merchandise to us is absurd.
That is the way England has built up her com-
merce, and we may be required to adopt similar
methods. In punctuality, generosity, and quality
England surpasses all other nations.
How can we pay for the goods we need? Eng-
land gave us the preference in iron, naval stores,
potash, flaxseed, and timber, and encouraged their
introduction by bounties. With independence
all this will change. Deane says he once supposed
that England could not support her manufactures
and commerce without American goods, but he
has changed his opinion, for he finds that she can
get tobacco and rice as cheaply from other coun-
tries, and that Cuban and Brazilian tobacco is
superior to American.
Deane borrows a good deal of trouble over our
commerce. He says that when we are independent,
we can go where we please, but not find purchasers
where we please, and nations will lay what im-
positions they please on our sales. The northern
i86 Silas Deane
powers of Europe have similar articles to sell with
ours ; Spain and Portugal only call for our flour and
fish. If England loses the thirteen colonies, she
will make the most of Nova Scotia, Newfoundland,
Canada, and the Floridas.
We supposed that all the EngHsh manufacturing
towns would clamor in our favor through want
of employment: Ireland for flaxseed, and British
West Indies for our goods. Six months corrects
that: Ireland gets cheaper flaxseed, the West
Indies suffer but little.
This would be amusing reading if it were not the
agonizing cry of a stricken man. How different
from the spread-eagle declarations of later years
are these sentences? "The world is not so de-
pendent on us, — we are more dependent on our
neighbors than they on us. "
He goes on to say that we shall be excluded
from the ancient markets of Europe, or rivalled
in them. It was the interest of Great Britain to
promote our commerce in fish, lumber, and ship-
building. Separate and free, her policy will re-
verse: she will shut her West India ports; sugar,
coffee, and spices will be high; England will drive
us out of our fisheries; Sweden and Russia can
undersell us in iron, timber, and ships.
Without a marine, we shall be a target for insult
Discouraged 187
on every side. Our debt is immense. Commerce
will be heavily taxed. Congress is unfavorable
to commerce: their resolutions in almost every
instance demonstrate their ignorance of the prin-
ciples and effects of commerce. We have magni-
fied our importance, buoyed by wild and ground-
less hopes.
France grows indifferent toward us; we are the
cheapest instrument to employ one half of the
forces of Great Britain. At this critical time
we can make better terms than later.
On June 13, Deane wrote Jeremiah Wadsworth,
insisting that Congress has an exaggerated view
of its own importance, and it imagines that every
European nation, except Great Britain, is in-
terested to have us independent, though told to the
contrary by every nation, except France.
Living in the atmosphere of Europe, Deane was
affected by its spirit, and it seemed to him that our
independence was spoken of differently from the
style three years before. Experience shows that
we are warmly attached to English manners, cus-
toms, and manufactures. Every American who
visits France is impatient to go to England, despite
the severe laws.
Nothing short of peace can save our country
from ruin. The terms offered by Great Britain
i88 Silas Deane
furnish a good basis for a treaty, and although
unpopular now, will not be so later.
In closing, Deane assured his solid old friend
that, while their sentiments might differ, he must
appreciate his motives.
On May 14, Deane wrote General S. H. Parsons,
and laid stress on the increasing navy of England,
with thirty new ships of the line and near forty
frigates on the stocks, plenty of money coming in
from the new loan, and the repeal of the obnoxious
acts that brought on the war.
June I, he wrote Charles Thomson, secretary
of Congress, emphasizing the fact that the usual
causes for revolution, such as cruelty, dungeons,
and scaffolds, had been lacking among the causes
leading up to the war.
On May 16, he wrote his brother Simeon that he
had not talked his views in public or private but
he could not disguise his fears that the change in
the temper of the Americans since 1775, the falling
off of able men from Congress, the heavy expenses,
and the refusal of European nations to receive our
ambassadors, were doleful prophecies of the future.
Of the temper of Congress, Deane could speak
out of his own experience; its caliber had not im-
proved: Franklin and John Adams were abroad,
Washington was in the army, Dickinson did not
Discouraged 189
return until late in 1779; Mason, Wythe, Jefferson,
Nicholas, and Pendleton were no longer members.
Congress had reduced the value of currency to
zero; its prominent members caballed against
Washington in the fearful winter of 1777-8; it did
nothing for the soldiers in Valley Forge, at a time
when Washington said that America was on the
brink of destruction.
Deane doubts whether a democracy will secure
the longed-for blessings, he fears that wealth
and power will tend toward selfishness and
faction.
He imagines all sorts of disasters in case we fail,
and thinks some action toward an honorable
reconciliation should be taken before the country
strikes Scylla or Charybdis.
Then he rehearses the story of his own woes,
and, speaking of his misfortunes, says: "I can
neither think nor write without dwelling on it. It
lies down with me at night. It rises with me in
the morning. I take up my pen and resolve not
to write about it, but before a page is written
I have referred to it. "
That the letter was strictly personal, and not
to be used to influence others, he adds: **I hope
this letter will come safe to your hands ; let no ex-
tracts or copies be made of it. "
190 Silas Deane
A letter of May lo, to James Wilton of Philadel-
phia, gives nothing we have not already noticed.
On May 20, he wrote a long letter to Jesse Root
of Philadelphia, in which he explained his change
of opinion: noisy, designing men had risen from
the lowest order to places of authority; the
government was poorly administered; anarchy,
licentiousness, and violence prevail even in Con-
gress; faction, cabal, and private interests too often
vanquish reason, patriotism, and justice.
More alarming is the depravity of morals; en-
couraged by the laws making a depreciated
currency a legal tender; grasping the rewards of
dishonesty offered those in debt, greater injustice
has been done than ever before among any people.
To Deane, brooding over these and other
sources of gloom, there emerged two propositions :
there is no probabiHty of independency; if estab-
lished, it would prove a curse. America grows
weaker, England stronger, France more wary;
freedom of legislation and commerce are delusive
dreams under anarchy and tumult already rife
among the colonies.
Hostilities already prevail between Virginia
and Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Pennsylvania.
England has often interposed to save the civil
and religious liberties of other countries against
Discouraged 191
France and Spain ; it will be better to have England
as our friend than either of these.
Deane uses considerable ingenuity to explain
how we can avoid breaking our faith with France,
by reconciliation with England, by showing that
France indicates that she will feel at liberty to
take a similar course if we are not successful.
He quotes Franklin's earlier zeal to maintain
the union with the British Empire and says, that
since the causes for the civil war have ceased by
the rescinding of obnoxious laws, we would do
well to return to the country to which we are
bound by ties of religion, laws, manners, and
language.
In a letter to Major Benjamin Tallmadge, written
May 20, he urges him to let no copies or extracts
be made of it. Had he taken counsel of a fear
which we can easily read between the lines, and
refrained from sending it and its companions,
how different might have been his later years !
On June 10, Deane wrote his old friend Robert
Morris a letter, which gives nothing we have not
read in the other dreary epistles.
Four days later, a letter to Gen. S. H. Parsons
contains sentences, which would not have been
written could Deane have looked forward to the
splendid service of De Grasse at Yorktown :
192 Silas Deane
The French fleet cannot reach you till August or
later, and little can be expected this summer. No-
thing is more evident than that the present object of
France and Spain is to waste the forces of Britain at
the expense of America. If we gain independence, we
shall be fortunate, if disputes do not carry us into
civil war.
Such is the gloomy view of a discouraged man,
whose credit was gone, whose integrity was im-
pugned, whose pocket was empty, as he brooded
month after month and year after year, far from
his country, of whose fortunes he had heard such
conflicting reports, for whose future it was easy
for him to fear the worst.
There is no evidence that Deane had any corre-
spondence with any officers of the British Govern-
ment. He wrote those letters to personal friends
in America, unburdening his heart, which had
, grown weary with the weight of injustice, dis-
grace and poverty. In two at least of the letters,
he charged the readers to allow no copies to be
made of them.
It is the cry of a desponding man, not of a
traitor. We may accuse him of lack of faith in
his country, weakness, and loss of courage; we
may say that his republicanism weakened, but
we cannot justly charge him with treason.
CHAPTER XII
DEANE AN EXILE IN HOLLAND
npHE experiences of Deane in the autumn of 178 1
were discouraging in the extreme. Very (lif-
erent were the fortunes of America with Wash-
ington, Lafayette, Rochambeau, and De Grasse
gathering their forces to crush ComwaUis, and close
the war. On September 13, the day before Wash-
ington arrived at Yorktown to take command of
the armies of France and America, Deane wrote \
his brother Barnabas, as was mentioned earlier,
that he was ill with fever and depression, but he
was planning soon to meet his son in Ghent, where .
he intended to pass the autumn.
My patience is exhausted [he writes] and my affairs
ruined by the unexampled conduct of Congress who
have detained me here — it is now more than a year —
waiting for the appointment of an auditor to settle
my accounts, which, in reality, I believe they never
wish, or desire to have settled.
On September 19, at the time when Washington
with Rochambeau, Chastelliix, and Knox were
conferring with De Grasse on his flagship Ville
13 193
194 Silas Deane
de Paris, concerning the coming battle, Deane
was writing his friend James Wilson of the failure
of his venture with masts and land sales.
Its being known [he writes] that a merchant has
made, or is about to make, any considerable ven-
ture to America is of itself sufficient to hurt his credit
in France. For myself almost everything I depended
upon when I left America has failed. I built great
/hopes on the mast contracts and had good right to do
so at the time. I was persuaded that something
might be done with lands. I had confidence that
Congress, after suffering me to be calumniated as a
public defaulter, and in effect treating me as such
themselves, would certainly have an auditor ap-
pointed; I was deceived also in this.
On September 26, Deane wrote his brother
Barnabas a depressing letter.
There is no talk of peace at present; you will say
I am a Cassandra, prophesying evil only. I cannot
help it, our credit is so low no goods can be bought
without cash on unquestioned European security.
I know no merchant in France who has not lost by
America, and too many are totally ruined. I confess
the gloomy prospect has made me exceedingly un-
happy, and makes me fear that public, as well as
private, tranquillity will be unknown in our country
during our lives.
On September 26, he wrote John Jay com-
plaining of the newspapers for coupling him with
Exile in Holland 195
Duane and Arnold, and thinks '* licentiousness in
stigmatizing men in public trust with the vilest
and most abusive epithets a fatal symptom of
universal anarchy, more to be dreaded than the
monarchy at the door. "
On October 20, he wrote from Ghent to Ben-
jamin Tallmadge of his fear that at the close of the
war America will feel the despotic weight of the
French army which will then number thirty
thousand veterans.
On October 2 1 , Deane wrote his brother that he
feared that an earlier letter had been intercepted;
he had learned that it and other letters had been
published in New York. It was disagreeable to
have them come out, but he was not sorry to have
all America informed of his sentiments, and of the
grounds on which they were founded. He adds,
"I have seen nothing to alter my way of thinking. "
This is plucky, though a little reckless, but there
is no symptom here of anything traitorous.
On October 21, he wrote Jonathan Trumbull:
*'No nation ever preserved its liberty after ad-
mitting a superior army of foreign mercenaries
to fight its battles. The name of Independent
States will not counterbalance the miseries and
distresses of present and future burdens. "
On November i, R. R. Livingston wrote John
196 Silas Deane
Jay from Philadelphia: ''As I know the con-
fidence you once had in Deane I must caution you
against having any communication with him;
some letters, said to be his, have been furnished
by Rivington, which, being compared with others
received here, have marks of authenticity."
A little later, Jeremiah Wadsworth wrote
Deane of the gloomy picture his letters presented
two days before in Rivington's New York Royal
Gazette ; he said he had nothing to reply to all
these assertions as they were founded on false
information, despondency, and mistakes.
Your old enemies pronounce you an apostate, and
boldly assert that you are paid by Great Britain, and
that before this you are in England. Your friends,
whose distress is extreme from your letters, hope that
the cold hand of despair, which was on you, caused
you to see everything with a jaundiced eye. Before
you receive this, I will hope that you have recovered
yoiu spirits and obtained a better knowledge of our
affairs, and have retracted your mistaken opinions.
On November 11, Barnabas Deane, in a letter to
Jacob Sebor, refers to the "intercepted letters,"
and says Deane' s enemies are freely coupling his
name with Arnold's, adding, "I am more sur-
prised at his imprudence at writing so freely than
at any other action of his life. He has now given
Exile in Holland 197
his enemies just the opportunity they wanted to
ruin him. "
The same month, Deane wrote Edward Ban-
croft a letter full of anxiety and distress over
the ' ' intercepted letters. ' '
I never could imagine [he says] that my attach-
ment to the true interests of my country could be
questioned. Still, things in America would be hap-
pier and we would enjoy greater liberties, subject to
England. Fully convinced of this, my natural opin-
ions and temper led me to say so to many Americans,
who set themselves to misreport or exaggerate every
expression of mine, and represent me as an enemy of
my country and a partisan of British tyranny.
He refers to the British taking important letters
from a vessel.
This [he says] gives me the greatest uneasiness
lest mine should be among them ; for, though I neither
expected nor required that my friends should keep
their contents secret from our countrymen in public
characters, yet should they be communicated to them
through the English papers from New York, such a
circumstance would fill the utmost measure of my
misfortune. I can easily foresee the consequences;
but should they prove ten times worse than I at
present imagine, apprehensive as I naturally am,
they will have no effect on me with regard to my
attachment to my country and its liberties.
To be obnoxious to that country which I once
gloried in as the common parent of myself and fellow-
198 Silas Deane
citizens, for having been among the first to resist
usurpation, and at the same time to become suspected
where I have experienced so much politeness and
hospitaHty, and to be represented in my own country
as its enemy, is too much.
One sees here the agony of a man who is ad-
vancing still further into misery. He adds:
"I will neither anticipate misfortune nor sink
under it, while health and spirits remain with me,
but for the past ten days both have threatened
to leave me. "
What sleepless nights, what vain regrets, what
restless tossings, what burdened hours are here
suggested! He goes on to speak of the rigid
economy he is obliged to practise.
This is the place to introduce an account of an
interview which Elkanah Watson had with Deane
in November, 1781. Watson says:
On my return from Brussels I called on the once
celebrated Silas Deane at Ghent. I found him a
voluntary exile, misanthropic in his feelings, intent on
getting money, and deadly hostile to his native land.
I felt constrained on my return to Paris to announce
to Franklin my conviction that Deane must be re-
garded an enemy alike to France and America. He
observed to me that similar representations had
reached him, but he was unwilling to admit their
truth.
Exile in Holland 199
Later, Watson revised this opinion, saying,
"Such at the time were my impressions and the
opinions I formed of Deane, I owe it to truth and
justice to record his vindication from these stric-
tures by a potent pen, that of John Trumbull, the
brilliant author of McFingal, to whose criticism
I submitted the compilation of my manuscript. "
He expressed the following views in a letter dated
January, 1823:
Silas Deane [you say] among other things was a
deadly enemy of his native land, but ambition, not
avarice, was his ruling passion. In his early trans-
actions at the Court of France, as the political and
commercial agent of Congress, he rendered important
service to his country, but, exceeding his powers, he
made his recall necessary. Exasperated by the cool
reception, and the delay in settling the account, he
became engaged in a controversy with many of the
most influential members of Congress. Defeated in
many of his purposes, he repaired again to France,
where he found his political reputation lost with the
loss of his official character. The publication of
letters charging the French Court with intrigue and
duplicity made him obnoxious there, and drove him in-
to voluntary exile. He lived in the Netherlands dis-
satisfied, exasperated, and reduced almost to penury.
Thus forced into an unnatural and friendless resi-
dence in foreign countries, he gave himself up to rage,
resentment, and actual despair, and vented his passion
in execrations against France, America, and mankind.
200 Silas Deane
In this condition you found him. He considered
himself as a man, not only abused and ill requited for
his important services, but denied those pecuniary
emoluments which had been promised him for his
agency in Europe.
This bears the marks of candor and good
judgment ; neither Watson nor Trumbull accepted
as true, reports, flying through the air, that Deane
was in the pay of the British Ministry.
There is a note by Lord North bearing upon
this matter, dated March 3, 1781, in which he
says: "I think Deane should have three thousand
pounds, in goods for America. The giving him
particular instructions would be liable to much
hazard, but his bringing any of the provinces to
offer to return to their allegiance on the former
foot would be much better than by joint coopera-
tion through Congress."
There is nothing in this to incriminate Deane.
There was a fund upon which ministers could draw
for purposes of bribery, but there is no evidence that
Deane received a shilling. All that can be proved
from the above letter is the fact that Deane's un-
happiness was known to Lord North, who would
naturally regard him as possibly an easy mark.
We have a letter of King George of the date,
August 7, 1 78 1, which is as follows:
Exile in Holland 201
The letter Lord North has wrote to Sir Henry
Clinton on the subject of the intercepted letters from
Deane, he is transmitting to him, is very proper, and
is the most likely means of rendering them of utility.
I own I think them too strong in our favor to bear
the appearance of his spontaneous opinion, but that, if
suspected to be authentic, they will see that they have
by concert fallen into our hands. The means Deane
should have taken as most conducive to the object he
seems now to favor would have been, first, to have
shown that the hands of the French are too full to be
able to give solid assistance to America, and to have
pointed out the ruin that must attend the further
continuance of the war.
So far as this shows anything it shows that
Deane had not endeavored in any deliberate, or
in any passionate or ill-considered way, to play
into the hands of the English and invite bribes
from the British Ministry.
Charles Isham says that there is no convincing
evidence that Deane was in the pay of the Eng-
lish, or was promised pay, when he wrote the
"intercepted letters." So extreme was his de-
spondency, and so bitter was his language after he
returned to Paris that he was regarded by the
English as a person who might serve the British
interests. Possibly some English agent suggested
to him that a commercial partnership would be
available by him without intimation of a bribe,
202 Silas Deane
but the extravagance with which Deane overshot
the mark, as King George himself says, is the
reverse of the spirit of a man bidding for EngHsh
gold. Deane sought no bribes; his letters are the
outflow of keen despair, and contain the con-
victions of a mind distorted by mistakes, dis-
couragements, and mania.
When Bancroft learned of their publication, he
wrote back in terms of regret, and complete
ignorance that his friend was in the pay of the
British Government. Had Deane been treason-
able, Bancroft was the most natural channel of
communication with the English, and he could
best have arranged the details. The business
offered by Lord North came to nothing. There is
an allusion of the king regarding Deane' s sin-
cerity, to be interpreted in favor of his integrity,
which is as follows: ''I quite agree with Lord
North that the retreat of Mr. Deane to Ghent
shows that his conduct is sincere. " Deane never
incriminated himself as a bribe-taker with his
relatives or intimates.
The ''intercepted letters" offered a rich field
to Tom Paine and other bitter enemies. Paine
quotes with relish the remark of a man who pre-
tended to be loyal to Deane, ''My old friend Duer
says, 'Deane is a damned artful rascal.' "
Exile in Holland 203
Benjamin Tallmadge wrote Deane, December
28, 1 78 1, that he was often spoken of as a traitor,
a disappointed statesman, laboring under the just
censures of his country, till the malice of thwarted
pride and ambition drove him to the dreadful step.
Meanwhile Deane was living in his cheap room
with his son, taking meals at a plain boarding
house. On December 21, he writes Frederick
Grand that he was very ill. Three days later,
he writes that he has a dry cough and can sleep
but little. He hears from Barclay, whom Con-
gress appointed to examine his accounts, that he
has no orders to close them.
On March 4, 1782, Franklin wrote Livingston,
that there was no doubt about the genuineness of
the ' ' intercepted letters. ' ' He says :
Deane's conversation, since his return from America,
has gone gradually more and more into that style,
and at length he came to an open vindication of
Arnold's conduct. He resides at Ghent, distressed
both in mind and circumstances; he raves, and
writes abundantly, and I imagine that it will end in
his going over to join his friend Arnold in England.
I had an exceedingly good opinion of him when he
acted with me, and I believe that he was sincere
and hearty in our cause; but he is changed, and his
character ruined in his own country and in this,
so I see no other but England to which he can now
retire.
204 Silas Deane
He did not go to England for a year, and
wise as the great philosopher was, for once he
was mistaken; moreover, Franklin's reference to
Deane's "friend Arnold" was undeserved, as we
shall see in the next chapter.
On March 30, 1782, Franklin wrote Morris from
Paris: "Our former friend, Deane, has lost him-
self entirely, and he and his letters are universally
condemned. He cannot well return hither, and I
think hardly to America. I see no place for him
but England. He continues, however, to sit
croaking at Ghent, chagrined, discontented, and
dispirited."
A letter from Deane to Franklin, bearing the
date of May 13, 1782, can scarcely be called a
"croaking letter" though it is discouraging and
passionate. After thanking Franklin for urging
Congress to settle his accounts, he sets forth his
opinion that an independent democracy in alli-
ance with the House of Bourbon would conduce less
to peace and happiness than to be under the
British constitution with abuses reformed. He
adds:
It is cruel and unjust in us to treat each other as
enemies on this account. I have not betrayed any
public trust, I have freely condemned the conduct of
Arnold, as freely as I from the first condemned that of
Exile in Holland 205
those violent demagogues, who improved every
circumstance and accident of his life to push him into
desperate measures. My case, therefore, in every
point of view, differs from his; I have neither corre-
spondence nor interest, nor the prospect of any in
Great Britain. The small remainder of my fortune,
the most of my friends and family, and all my future
hopes and prospects are in America. I have therefore
every motive to make me wish for the liberty and
happiness of my country, and I can with great sin-
cerity declare, that if America, on experiment, shall
find herself happier and more free under the present
system than she ever was or could expect to be under
the other, however modified or reformed, I shall re-
joice to find I have judged erroneously, and that I
have both written and spoken at least imprudently on
the subject.
I A letter from Beaumarchais to Morris written
June 3, 1782, shows how cordial was his confi-
dence in Deane :
I address to you [he says] a faithful abstract of
my accounts as they have been settled by Mr. Deane
with whom alone, on behalf of the General Congress, I
treated. His misfortunes, the malice with which his
character, naturally mild and uniform, has been
aspersed, and the complaints which I have heard in
this country against certain of his writings, have not
changed the opinion I formed of him. I will always
do him the justice to say that he is one of those men
who have contributed most to the alliance of France
with the United States. I will even add that his
2o6 Silas Deane
laudable endeavors in the most difficult times
merited perhaps another recommendation. I see
there are intrigues among Republicans as well as
in the courts of kings. This digression, a compas-
sionate feeling for a man worthy of a better lot,
forces from me, in writing to you, sir, who have loved
him as I do.
The abuse to which Deane was exposed in the
newspapers is suggested by a certificate of Frank-
lin published about this time as follows:
Since certain paragraphs in English papers impute
that Silas Deane had sometime after his first arrival
in France purchased in that kingdom thirty thousand
muskets, and that he gave three Hvres for each, being
old, condemned arms ; that he had them cleaned and
vamped up at a cost of three livres more; and that
for each of these he charged and received a louis
d'or, and that he also committed similar frauds
in the purchase of other articles for the use of his
country, I think it my duty, in compliance with his
request, to certify and declare that the paragraph
in question, according to my best knowledge and
behef, is entirely false, and that I have never known
or suspected any cause to charge said Silas Deane
with any want of probity in any purchase or any
bargain whatsoever.
How sweeping and reckless were the charges
appears from a quotation from a letter from
William Lee to Samuel Thorpe, dated January
17, 1783, as follows: "A correspondent has seen
Exile in Holland 207
the publication in America in which FrankHn is
pubHcly charged as deep in the mire as Deane. "
The exile wrote John Jay, Feburary 10, 1782, of
his straitened circumstances, his being forced to
contract debts for his support, which would not
have been necessary could he have visited London,
from which he was debarred through fear of
creating prejudice; that he had been struggling to
keep himself above the extremes of personal want
and indigence; that he had been calumniated in
America as a defaulter, grown rich out of pub-
lic moneys, and this by those who had it at all
times in their power to convict, and to make a
public example of him had they found him guilty
on a trial, to which he presented himself and for
which he solicited; that his accounts had been
before Congress for a year; and a year and a
half before, when Barclay, who had been appointed
auditor, wrote for instructions, he was told he was
not to have any concern about the affair. In the
words of Deane :
If my enemies believed one word of what they as-
serted and professed against me for five years past in
America, would they hesitate one moment to bring
me to trial? If Congress thought there were any
grounds for the charges, would they be so unjust to
their constituents as to refuse all examination?
2o8 Silas Deane
Deane's exile is made more bitter by the fact
that his letters are intercepted; his brother had
"^ ^ot heard from him for over a year, though many
letters had been written, and he knew they reached
' America. He wrote Barnabas February lo, 1783:
Unhappily my letters, as well as every thing'else be-
longing to me, have been regarded as free plunder by
both parties. I hope to be able to go to London in a
v" few days, and shall recover sufficient out of an old
balance due me to answer my more pressing demands.
He had stayed away from London to avoid
giving further advantage to his enemies. He
urges his brother to sell all his property, real and
personal, and remit the proceeds to him; he
expresses his willingness to have his accounts
- ^ examined and decided upon by any disinterested
merchants or bankers in Paris, and says that the
balance due him is sixty thousand dollars.
On February 10, 1783, he wrote Edward Ban-
croft that he would like to visit Paris, if he were
not liable to meet disagreeable words or actions,
of which he had had sufficient. As he thinks of the
good friends in Paris he longs to see, his mind goes
back two years, to the time when he wrote the
fatal letters, and he says :
I wrote freely, and I confess unguardedly, my
sentiments on our affairs at a very gloomy period.
Exile in Holland 209
It is no way extraordinary that my mind should be
affected at the dangerous situation in which I then
viewed everything dear to me to be in, nor that my
pen should express the feelings of my heart, nor that
I did not foresee events then unexpected by every-
one; but an error in judgment is not a crime. Could
the public view the letters of men of high station at
that time to their friends on both sides of the water,
mine would not appear to be the only desponding or
criminal ones.
On February 22, Jay wrote Deane from Paris
a letter which must have wrung the heart of the
exile. '*I was your friend, and should still have
been so, " he said, ''had you not advised America
to desert that independence which they had
pledged each other their lives, fortunes, and
sacred honor to support. "
A little solace mingles in the bitter cup, as he
{ says: ''The charges against you of peculation
undoubtedly called for strict and speedy in-
quiry; but I expected that you would make a
satisfactory defense against them — I hope so still."
Speaking of his desire to visit England, he says:
"To my knowledge you are suspected of being
in British interests. ... As circumstances press
your going, probably you will venture; let me
advise you to be prudent and cautious what com-
pany you keep, and what conversations you hold
14
2IO Silas Deane
in that country." This was good counsel for a
man so inclined to talk as Deane was. Then fol-
lows what we may regard as a fairly correct ex-
planation of Deane's unfortunate ''intercepted
letters."
I write thus plainly and fully, because I still indulge
the idea that your head may have been more to blame
than your heart, and that in some melancholy despond-
ent hour the disorder of your nerves affected your
opinions and your pen. God grant this may have
proved to have been the case, and that I may yet have
reason to resume my former opinion, that you were a
valuable, a virtuous, and a patriotic man.
Deane himself came to regard this reasoning of
his friend Jay as a true explanation of his folly.
Writing Feburary 28, to M. LeRay Chaumont,
he says he hopes the peace
will settle people's minds, and that an individual will
not be regarded as an enemy, because in an hour of
despondency and apprehension for his country, he
imprudently attempted to warn his countrymen of
what he thought their danger.
It is true I wrote many letters to America on what
appeared at the time the dangerous and critical
situation of my country; it is true I wrote them to
my private friends for their information ; it is equally
true that some of those letters were basely betrayed
and that others were intercepted and published in New
York, not to serve Great Britain so much as to injure
Exile in Holland 211
me, and for that purpose some of them were altered
in many parts, and the whole placed in the most
unfavorable light.
Though I am ready to acknowledge that I was mis-
informed and misled in some, and even in many things,
and that I was imprudent to write or speak at all on
the subject, yet as a free citizen I had a free right to
do both.
On February 28, Deane replied to Jay's pointed
but friendly counsel, explaining the gloom in which
he wrote the "intercepted letters, " adding:
Unfortunately I am not blessed with that gay and
sanguine disposition which leadeth the happy posses-
sor of it to hope and to believe all things whatsoever
they wish for. In such a situation, and with such
feelings, it was not possible for me, if I wrote or spoke
at all, not to express some sentiments tinctured by the
gloom before me. I am not about to justify the part
I took ; nay, I confess that when I bring it to the bar
of prudence I am among the first to condemn it ; but ,
I cannot bring myself to regard an: imprudent and a
criminal action as the same. I do not either justify
or wholly excuse my conduct; but I must be that
traitor to myself, which God knows I never was to my
country, should I subscribe to that condemnation so
outrageously pressed on me by many of my country-
men. When I am charged with being in the British
interests, it is implied and generally understood as
being in British pay, but can anything give a stronger
contradiction to this than the part I have acted both
before and since writing those letters, and the dis-
212 Silas Deane
tressed situation in which I have lingered out a
wretched and obscure exile in this place?
For almost eighteen months past I have lived in
lodgings barely decent, without a servant, and dined
at an ordinary, a style of living which you well know
I am neither accustomed nor inclined to, and to which
necessity alone could ever reduce me — a hard ne-
cessity indeed — for without this rigid economy I must,
with an only son, of whom I have the right to promise
quite the reverse, have been reduced to the extremes
of want; and what has embittered even this scanty
subsistence (as if I had not only a sufficient portion
of gall in my cup) , I have owed the greatest part of it
to a friend in Paris, who generously lent me money,
still unpaid. I was never in England, neither have I
intimate or stated correspondents in that country; I
am personally unknown to any one, both of the old
and the present administration, except a casual ac-
quaintance with Lord Shelburne, Mr. Townsend, and
Mr. Fox in 1776, at a dinner at a friend's house in
Paris, may be called a personal acquaintance.
Referring to Jay's statement that the charges
of peculation called for strict and speedy inquiry,
Deane said that for three years he had solicited
an investigation; that, while it was not in his
power to force Congress to action, it had been in
their power to ruin him by blasting his character
with their vague and general insinuations, and
denying him the only possible means to justify
himself to them and before the world. He quotes
Exile in Holland 213
Franklin's assertion of two months before that he
never had the least cause to suspect his fidelity
in money transactions for the public.
Referring to the possible alternative of pub-
lishing the state of the case in the papers, he says
that this would have only thrown him back on the
tempestuous ocean of newspaper litigation and
abuse into which he once suffered himself to be
driven, and in which he had been shipwrecked.
"The bare mention of my name," he says, ''in
a newspaper was, as I know and have lately ex-
perienced, sufficient to set scribblers to work to
abuse me; and the torments of a contest of this
kind are like the torments of hell, endless, and to
increase them the sufferer must ever be in bad com-
pany. " With returning peace and tranquillity he
hopes for justice; he does not look for public
office, but only hopes to wipe off the aspersion cast
on his character, and to convince the world that
he merits in some degree the former opinion his
friends held of him.
So runs the dreary story of Deane's exile in
Ghent, where for nearly a year and a half he lived
in poverty, in cheap lodgings, taking his meals at
a public eating-house. The presence of his son
was company for him, if not a comfort, as the
youth's health was not strong, and the father
214 Silas Deane
felt keenly the shadow which his misfortunes cast
upon his boy.
He had abundant time to review the whole
situation, and eat his heart out with vain regret
over his imprudence in allowing his despondency
to direct his pen, and thus put into the hands of
his enemies materials for completing his downfall.
It must have been a relief to embark for London,
for he cherished the hope which proved to be vain,
of securing a balance due him there.
CHAPTER XIII
ISOLATION, POVERTY, AND MISERY IN ENGLAND
T^HE first token of Deane's presence in England
is in a letter written April i, 1783, to his
brother Simeon, in which he said that after being
delayed by illness in Ghent, he had come to
London, where he purposed to stay only long
enough to settle an old account and send to
America his son, who was then ill with a return
of the disorder which had affected him in his in-
fancy. He says: ''It is a gloomy reflection to
think that the son may be as unforttmate in
his health as the father in his fortunes; but I
submit, and I flatter myself with some degree of
philosophic fortitude, to ills which I can neither
prevent nor avoid."
It is a satisfaction to see that Deane did some-
thing besides brood over his misfortunes. He ad-
vises the lawmakers of Connecticut to use their
influence to liquidate and apportion the public
debt without loss of time, and let each state take
its portion and manage its own revenue.
215
2i6 Silas Deane
Robert Morris had long been struggling with
that problem as Superintendent of Finance, but
his urgent appeals and arguments were, as he said,
*'like preaching to the dead." Deane's good
business head appears in his remark: "The
great object of Congress is to make a common
treasury, to be supplied by imposts and duties laid
by themselves, and collected and disposed of by
officers of their appointing. "
On the same date as the above, he wrote James
Wilson that his mercantile endeavors had all
failed, he had tried in vain to sell lands in Illinois,
to pick up broken fragments of fortune in various
quarters and begin anew, but in all his discourage-
ments he was sustained by a ''firm belief in a
superintending Providence."
A week later he wrote his brother Barnabas
that his son Jesse was miserably weak and low,
and an incision had been made in his neck.
In July, he wrote Barnabas that he was plan-
ning to send his son to America, though he feared
he would never be well; his business ventures
had come to nothing; of forty thousand dollars
he had left in M. X^haumont's hands, nothing
could be recovered from the bankrupt. Reviewing
his long series of misfortunes, he speaks of the
combination of the discouragements which beset
Poverty and Gloom 217
him and of the gloomy letters received in the spring
of 1 78 1, when he wrote the "intercepted letters."
Overwhelmed by trials, he had stayed in exile
and obscurity in Ghent rather than expose himself
to the censures, persecutions, and malignant
shafts of his enemies; but he could not escape,
for in all the English papers paragraphs were
inserted declaring that he had defrauded his
country of large sums and fled from justice.
Within three weeks of his coming to London, he
was set upon by a lot of mischievous scribblers.^
who renewed the attack.
Benedict Arnold called upon him at once,
went to his room unannounced, and a remembrance
of past personal civilities and hospitality re-
strained Deane from closing the door in his face,
but he declined Arn9ld's invitation to dine at his
house in company with gentlemen of rank and
character. The next day, Deane changed his
lodgings, but Arnold found where he was, and
went up again unannounced, when Deane told
his unwelcome visitor frankly not to visit him,
and that he could not regard him in the same
light as formerly and he ''had not seen Arnold
since, except passing in his coach. " One morning
a London paper said, "Yesterday Mr. Deane had
a long interview with Lord North." The next
2i8 Silas Deane
morning, "Mr. Deane was at the Duke of
Portland's levee, dined with Mr. Fox," etc., etc.
The fact is [writes Deane] I have never seen any
of these ministers except at a distance in the House of
Commons or in the park, nor do I know any of them
even by sight, except it be Lord North and Mr. Fox,
whose figures are such that once seen they must ever
afterward be known.
The key of this chronic animosity Deane thinks
he discovers in the fact, that as soon as the pre-
liminaries of peace had been signed, Americans
hastened to England from all parts of Europe,
with the sanguine expectation that British ports
and stores of merchandise would be open to
them, and that they might obtain whatever they
wanted, but they were disappointed in every
quarter for merchants in America still owed the
English dealers two million pounds. The cause
for failure was imputed to Deane's advice, which
influenced the counsels of the English cabinet.
In a letter to Franklin of October 19, 1783,
Deane explains the situation more fully. He says
he accidentally became acquainted with Lord Suf-
field, and answered his inquiries in a conversation
in the presence of Sir Robert Harris. Lord Suffield
was writing a pamphlet on the commercial re-
lations of England and America. Deane by no
Poverty and Gloom 219
means sympathized with the position of Lord
Suffield, and never talked with him without taking
the opposite side. "Yet such has been my fate, "
he writes FrankHn, "that simply from my intimacy
with him, I have had those arguments and princi-
ples, which I opposed, attributed to me." Lord
Suffield's object was to secure to England the
carrying trade, and to preserve the Navigation
Act from being in any way altered. Deane in-
sisted that the carrying could not, beyond a certain
degree, be retained by England, and that the
Navigation Act was a wise measure in its time,
but had gone out of date.
Deane never lost the affection and confidence of
Beaumarchais, and in a letter of November 3,
1783, he wrote him:
You say that, from the reports of my friends, you
apprehend that my misfortunes have affected my
spirits, and turned me toward a melancholy state,
against which you cautioned me. I thank you for
your advice, but shall be doubly obliged to you for a
prescription to prevent that fatal, soul-annihilating
disorder. Indeed, I am not gay, I am not naturally
so inclined ; and it is now some years since I have had
anything to dispel gloom and excite gayety. I have
at times been very low in spirits, my health has
suffered from it, but I still survive, though lately very
ill, and still so weak as to be confined to my chamber;
but a consciousness of integrity supports me; I hold
220 Silas Deane
it fast, and like good old Job, neither man nor devil
shall ever make me let it go. The painful recollection
of ingratitude it is not in the power of medicine to
expel. I would not change my situation with my
enemies ; I have been guilty of many errors and weak-
nesses, but never of infidelity to my trust, or of in-
gratitude, or injustice to my fellow men.
On the same day as the above he wrote his
brother Simeon, explaining that his complaint for
not hearing from his exiled brother was not be-
cause of any neglect on his part; he had written
twenty times, he says :
I have lived to see such things, that I am surprised
at nothing. Though I have become almost callous to
reproach, and inured to misfortune, and to the treach-
erous conduct of pretended friends, yet I have strug-
gled hard during a gloomy exile in a gloomy country,
' to keep my spirits from entirely deserting me ; and these
struggles have at times greatly affected my health.
No set of men were ever guilty of greater meanness
and cruelty in intercepting the correspondence of
absent friends. This cruelty has been wanton; for,
-since the publishing of my unfortunate letters, I have
not hinted at politics in any of my correspondence.
You wish to know my plans; I really have none.
I am quite at sea, without compass or friendly star
to direct my course. My frail and ill-provided bark
must still drive as chance or accident impels.
I begin to regard my demand on Congress as des-
perate ; they have long since wanted both the will and
the ability to do justice to those who saved them.
Poverty and Gloom 221
That Deane was passing into a healthier mood
appears in his references to his study of machines,
especially of stationary steam engines for manu-
facturing purposes, with a view of introducing
them into America.
A singular pathos attaches to this period, from
the fact that he barely failed of an interview with a
man he esteemed above almost all others, whose
good will he longed for, — ^John Jay; to whom he
wrote from his Fleet Street lodgings on November
4, 1783, that he had been held back by illness from
calling on him, and when he called Jay was gone.
''I am anxious for one hour's conversation with
you," he wrote.
In a letter to Thomas Barclay of November 7,
he reviews his accounts, says he has vouchers for
almost everything, and pleads for an order for a
part at least of the money due him.
On the same day, he wrote Franklin concerning
the reports circulating to his disadvantage, saying
that he had improved every opportunity to have
the restraint on commerce in the West Indies
removed or moderated.
On November 3, 1783, Deane issued an address
to the people of the United States, having sent
the copy of it over by his son Jesse. He reviews
the three years' misfortune and exile, and says
222 Silas Deane
the two charges against him are, first, that he is
guilty of fraud and peculation in the management
.of public moneys; second, that after his return
to France in 1781, he wrote letters from interested
motives, and with a base and treacherous desire
to injure his country, having previously engaged
in the interests of her enemies. He insists that a
man with his character and standing, up to the
time of his going to Europe in the spring of 1776,
should not be condemned without a hearing.
After most of the contracts for stores and ships
had been completed, there came to him, early in
1778, the call of Congress that he should return
and report on the state of affairs in Europe.
Advised by Vergennes and Franklin to keep the
recall a secret, he could not in the complicated
state of affairs, having had dealings with widely
scattered men, and forwarding goods secretly,
make up his accounts at a few days' notice. Had
he attempted to do so, it would have defeated the
secrecy which he was advised to observe.
Though he had received no intimation from any
letter from Congress of dissatisfaction with his
management, he was aware that his fellow-
commissioner, Arthur Lee, was a jealous and art-
ful enemy, and that Lee was in correspondence
with leading men in America; therefore he was
Poverty and Gloom 223
anxious to delay his return until all accounts were
settled and closed, but yielding his judgment, he
set sail, taking from Grand, the banker, a state-
ment of all the moneys received or paid out on the
account of the United States. With this and the
testimonials of the king, the minister, and his
colleague and intimate friend, Franklin, as to this
zeal and integrity, he had no fear of censure for
lack of vouchers in detail; but the venomous pen
of Lee had poisoned the minds of public men be-
yond anything he had imagined, by insinuating
that he had become immensely rich in public
service, and consequently that he must have been
guilty of dishonesty, and, though summoned home
to report on the state of European affairs, his
first audience with Congress was after six weeks'
attendance and solicitation. He then gave a
verbal statement and asked, that if there was any
charge against him, he might be heard in ex-
planation and defense ; he was not told of any, and
though Congress appeared in no way dissatisfied
with his conduct, and the settlement of public
and private affairs pressed him to return, he could
not obtain any resolution of Congress either
to approve or disapprove, or another hearing until
late in December, though he asked almost every
day for another audience.
224 Silas Deane
In December, he gave a written narrative, and
Congress appointed a committee, which did not
give him an audience or ask him a question.
The committee studiously evaded every opportu-
nity to get information or hear explanation.
During more than fourteen months of stay in
Philadelphia, Deane had only two audiences
with Congress, and not one with the committee
specially appointed.
In December, 1778, finding that there was a
party determined on his ruin, which had sufficient
influence to prevent all examination, and to bear
him , down by the most mortifying delay and
neglect, he issued his first address to the public
through the newspapers ; this led Congress to give
him a hearing and appoint the committee. The
papers took up the matter in the most outrageous
and abusive way, and Deane made no reply to
their lies, but kept urging Congress and the com-
mittee to give him a hearing. From December,
1778, to August, 1779, he wrote Congress more
than thirty letters humbly petitioning for a public
examination and trial; they never took the least
notice of his requests. Through private con-
versations with the members, he learned that the
only difficulty lay in the fact that his accounts
^were unsettled. To obviate this, Deane returned
Poverty and Gloom 225
to France with an assurance from Congress that
it would empower a man to settle the accounts,
but when that officer was appointed, his powers
were so limited that he declined to act. Deane
wrote immediately to Congress asking for more
ample power for the auditor. Twelve months of
heavy expense went by, with a vague charge of
default over him, and no word came from Congress
until November, 1781, when he learned of the
appointment of Thomas Barclay as consul, but
Barclay told Deane he had received no instructions.
Soon after this came the mortification of the
publishing of the "intercepted letters " of May and
June. Proscribed, obnoxious, exiled, he still
waited for Congress, which had had his accounts
over eighteen months; it was over five years
since he had money or employment from the
public. He says: "Has any fraud been de-
tected? Had I been guilty of any, would not my
enemies have published it, instead of charging me
generally of being a defaulter of uncalculated
millions?" Ought not the written statements
of Franklin in 1778, and again in 1782, as to his
ability, faithfulness, and honesty, to have some
weight?
He reviews his whole career in Europe, shows
how he managed the difficult task of forwarding
IS
226 Silas Deane
supplies, with the French government vacillating,
English officers alert, and little money, yet in
November, 1776, two hundred brass cannon and
mortars, thirty thousand fusils, with ammunition,
clothing, and tents for as many men, were at the
ports ready for the ships, which were there to
receive them, and after the most positive orders
given by the Court forbidding the sailing of the
ships, two vessels, the Amphitrite and Mercure,
were got to sea under pretense of sailing to San
Domingo, and these carried large military supplies
to Portsmouth in April, 1777; and when General
Burgoyne capitulated, his army was surrounded
by men armed with the fusils and supported b}^
artillery sent over in these vessels.
The victory at Saratoga led France to conclude
a treaty with America, and in a great degree
decided the independence of the United States.
He quotes Beaumarchais' letter of March 23,
1778, in which he assures Congress that if the
money, stores, and merchandise have been of any
use to America, the gratitude of the country is
due "to the indefatigable pains Deane had taken
through the whole transaction. "
We look with special interest to Deane' s ex-
planation of the "intercepted letters" of 1781 : the
news from America was gloomy, the British
Poverty and Gloom 22^
forces were in possession of the whole seacoast
from the Chesapeake southward ; they ravaged and
distressed the country ; their ships intercepted our
trade; America had no fleet; Washington's army
was too weak for offensive operation: Congress
had neither money nor credit; Washington de-
clared ''that without a decidedly superior fleet
to that of Great Britain in America, all opposition
to the British forces would soon be at an end."
All letters from America were in this style.
My letters were published [he adds sadly], others
not. I then thought that a reunion, not simply on the
^ condition of being replaced in the state in which we,
( were pre\'ious to 1763 (for which alone Congress in
1774, and in 1775, petitioned) , but on terms every way
preferable ; namely, to be governed solely by laws of our
( own enacting, taxed by our own assemblies, and of en-
joying the same commercial privileges and pro-
i tection as other members of the British Empire —
, a condition preferable to that of war, hazarding the
I experiment of independent sovereignty. This opin-
' ion which I gave my friends was regarded as little
I short of high treason.
I The first and second Continental Congresses
I petitioned for a restoration to the former condi-
1 tions of "law, loyalty, faith, and blood."
< Soon afterward Franklin drew up several
resolutions declaring that the idea that "we aim
228 Silas Deane
at independence and the abolition of the Navi-
gation Act is groundless."
After the Declaration of Independence was
issued, Franklin, with the approval of Congress,
^^ wrote to Lord Howe, July 30, 1776: "Long did I
endeavor to preserve from breaking the British
' "Empire, for I knew that once broken, perfect re-
union of the parts could not be hoped for. "
^ "Was it a crime for me," wrote Deane, "in
/ 1 78 1, to wish for a perfect reunion, and in private
urge my friends to promote the event which Dr.
> Franklin had most devoutly wished ? "
^ Three fourths of the ships sailing from the
United States had been captured, the paper of
Congress was not passed at any rate; General
Washington said that without aid from France to
pay the troops, and a fleet superior to the British,
all opposition would end with that campaign.
The whole of the naval force ordered by France
that season to the West Indies and America was
not equal to the British. De Grasse was first
ordered to the West Indies, thence to the Conti-
nent, but as more than four hundred sail of the
French merchant ships would need convoy from
the West Indies, it was given out in France that
previous to sailing northward, a part of De
Grasse's fleet would attend the merchant ships.
Poverty and Gloom 229
No one at the time would expect that the Count
would take every French ship of war with him,
or that Cornwallis would fix on one of the most
unfavorable positions of the country for defense,
or that General Clinton would allow Washington
and Rochambeau to march without opposition
to Virginia, or that several British ships would
remain in the West Indies, thereby making the
French force superior to the British.
In that critical time, that dangerous situation,
the unfortunate letters were written, and distorted
in the publication.
It is needless to say that this appeal made
little difference with the attitude of the country
toward Deane. The damaging, the insuperable
fact which stood in his way was that his ac-
counts with Congress were unsettled, and the
inference gathered, even by considerate men, was
that there was good reason for the hostility of
Congress.
The coiTespondence of Deane and Jay at this
period is painful ; the former was eager to meet the
latter, and extremely sensitive to his opinion.
Any delay of the latter in writing increased Deane' s
misery. The culmination of agony was reached
in a letter from Jay to Deane, dated February
23, 1 784, in which he said :
230 Silas Deane
It is painful to say disagreeable things to any person,
and especially to those with whom I have lived in
habits of friendship. But candor forbids reserve.
You were of the number of those who possessed my
esteem, and to whom I was attached. I cannot ex-
press the regret I experienced from the cruel necessity
I thought myself under of passing over the card and
letter in silence ; but I love my country and my honor
better than my friends, and even my family. You
are either exceedingly injured, or no friend to America ;
and while doubts remain on that point, all connection
between us must be suspended. I wish to hear what
you might have to say on that head, and should have
named a time and a place for an interview, had not an
insurmountable obstacle intervened to prevent it.
I was told by more than one, whose information I
thought I could rely on, that you received visits from,
and were on terms of intimacy with, General Arnold.
Every American who gives his hand to that man, in my
opinion, pollutes it. I think it my duty to deal thus
candidly with you, and assure you with equal sin-
cerity that it would give me cordial satisfaction to
find you able to acquit yourself in the judgment of the
dispassionate and the impartial.
On May 3, Deane wrote Jay of "the insur-
mountable obstacle, " saying:
One hour's conversation would do more to convince
you that I am neither an enemy to our country nor
intimate with General Arnold than a volume. I
have no interest to deceive you with respect to General
Arnold ; on my first arrival in London twelve months
since, he called on me abruptly two or three times,
Poverty and Gloom 231
and as it happened, there was company, some of them
Americans, with me each time. The last time, as I
waited him down, I requested him to discontinue his
visits, which he did, and it is now ten months since
I have seen him.
Deane exploded the charge of advising the
British Ministry to pass measures unfriendly to
American commerce, showing that his attitude
had been the opposite of that attributed to him,
that he never met Lord Suffield without a dispute
on the commerce with the West Indies.
That Deane was not calling upon his imagi-
nation, when he wrote of the commercial charges,
appears from a letter from Laurens to Livingstone,
dated Bath, July 17, 1783, in which the writer"
says: "I was informed yesterday (and through
pretty good authority, I speak only as from re-
port) that Mr. Silas Deane, who has been in
London about four months, has been an active
hand in chalking out a treaty of commerce with
us."
Deane's worry in this gloomy period was in-
creased by the unjust charge of a dissolute member
of the Webb family that Deane had defrauded the
family, whereas for years Deane urged the ap-
pointment of auditors to settle everything in
equity.
232 Silas Deane
From a letter to Beaiimarchais we learn the
rigid and exacting conditions under which Barclay
was to judge his case. Explicit vouchers were de-
manded for everything; the quality of clothing,
cannon ,f usees, and powder sent over seven years be-
fore was to be inquired into, and no money paid
until Congress should approve. "The age of Me-
thuselah, " wrote Deane, "would be needed for your
account and mine. " In reality, it was half a cen-
tury before the heirs of Beaumarchais and Deane
were paid even a percentage of their just dues.
Deane's misery in London is disclosed in a letter
to his brother Simeon, April 3, 1784, in which he
says his name is again taken up, and from being
a poor, distressed, and even a despised exile, he is
spoken of as a man who influenced the counsels
of nations and directed the late ministers in their
measures concerning our commerce. He says:
"Every American in Europe professes to believe
this fully, and I expect, for a time at least, it will be
received and credited without question, and hence
my correspondence may be again intercepted. "
He does not authorize his brother to contradict
these reports, for
Though I sent you proofs of the falsity, strong as
those of holy writ, or mathematical demonstration,
it would avail nothing in the present temper of the
Poverty and Gloom 233
times. It is the general belief of my countrymen here
that, but for the advice and information that I gave
on my first arrival here, we should have been admitted
to a free commerce with British West Indies, and every
other part of the British Dominion, on the same terms
as before separation.
This is untrue. The only interview he ever had
with the ministers was long after the measure was
taken, and the reason for his asking for an inter-
view then was to persuade them to adopt a dif-
ferent plan, and lay our commerce open to the
West Indies for everything, except the carrying
of sugar to Europe, and he believes that would
have been adopted had it not been for the sudden
change in the Ministry.
I do not blame my countrymen [he sadly continues]
for their suspicions of me; they know that I am a
man greatly injured, that I have in fact been un-
gratefully proscribed and driven from my country,
and they know that I am not devoid of passion and
resentment, and the conclusion which they draw is
natural, and though in present instance unjust, it
would be to no purpose to attempt to convince them
at present.
Deane's despondency, in view of the hope-
lessness of his political and financial situation,
was relieved by tours among the manufacturing
towns, to examine new inventions in machinery,
234 Silas Deane
of most of which he made drafts, with the hope
of introducing some of them into America.
Speaking of his accounts, he says Barclay is so
tied up that there is no prospect of any settlement,
especially as Congress has nothing to pay him.
It was while touring through the manufacturing
districts of England, hoping to find some new
avenue toward the recovery of his fortunes, that
A Deane had a sickening experience with a man who
had been apparently one of his warmest friends,
Henry Laurens, president of Congress.
^ In December 1783, while Deane was visiting
Birmingham, Laurens reached the city, and seeing
Deane and Dr. Priestly together, sought out a
-Mr. Russel, an intimate friend of Priestly's, and
vtold him that Deane was unworthy of confidence
on four counts. These were promptly delivered
to Priestly, who had the frankness to give the in-
formation to Deane, who was able at once to re-
fute them and retain the confidence and friendship
of Priestly.
The four charges were as follows:
1. That Deane was poor and in no decent
estimate before entering public life.
2. That he shipped two vessels with goods
from France.
3. That while commissioner he intercepted
Poverty and Gloom 235
the despatch sent by Captain Folger, and put in
blank paper.
4. That on his return he used every artifice
to avoid being called to account.
Yet in conversation Laurens admitted that he
did not doubt but the time would come when Dean^
would justify himself. Deane wrote a paper an-
swering the four charges of Laurens. After
reviewing his work in France up to the time of
his recall, he says Laurens, president of Congress,
received him with open arms, congratulated him
on the prospect of disappointing his enemies, and
said that he had always opposed the resolution for
the recall.
Though warned by his knowledge of the enmity
of Arthur Lee, William Lee, and Izard, and by
Hosmer of Connecticut, an old student friend,
that it was the plan of his enemies to undermine
and destroy him by delay, Laurens' warm ex-
pression of friendship prevented Deane 's enter-
taining the least doubt of his sincerity, and
sixteen months went by while Deane waited,
hoping that Congress would take action.
In that time Deane wrote forty-two appli-
cations for examination and decision, until at
length he saw that Laurens was in conspiracy
with the Lees and Izard to prevent his return.
236 Silas Deane
As to the four charges:
1. Low estate and poverty. While member
of Congress for two terms, Deane had served on
many important committees and had an unhmited
credit. Livingstone, Alsop, Maurice, and Lewis
committed to his sole management a contract of
forty thousand pounds, and with Livingstone and
Alsop he had other large concerns in trade. He
lived in the first style until the depreciation of
the paper of Congress swept away the major part
of his fortune, which was invested in bonds and
mortgages. Compared with Laurens he was poor,
but his money was not acquired by slavery, by the
toil and distress of hundreds of slaves, or by con-
signments of negroes.
2. As to the sending over two ships with valu-
able cargo. Laurens knew that he had not enough
money to purchase one half of one of them, but
the insinuation was that the money came from the
British government. Suppose he had sent over
twenty ships, if he could do it without neglect
of duty what occasion was there for criticism?
But Laurens knew that his statement about even
two ships on his own account was false. When
Deane went to France he had arranged with Morris
to appear there as a merchant, and a small brig-
antine was sent from Bordeaux, of which Deane
Poverty and Gloom 237
owned one third and Morris another third. That
ship was captured by the EngHsh. Six months
afterward a larger ship was sent out of which
Morris owned one fourth, Deane one fourth, and
a house in Paris one half, but with no profits
owing to depreciation of money. ''I put not a
trunkful of goods on the vessels which carried
military supplies, though I might have done it,
as Laurens has every opportunity to know, for
he has been many months in France."
3. Equally false was the charge concerning
the "intercepted letters."
4. As to the reluctance for the investigation at
the hands of Congress, Deane wrote many letters
soliciting inquiry, and they were laid on the table.
I was with Mr. Laurens daily [wrote Deane].
I did not see beneath that solemn mask which he
never puts off. Colonel Duer seemed interested in me,
and when the coming to a resolution on my conduct
could no longer be delayed, a motion was made to take
the matter into consideration, that I might be de-
tained no longer. There was no opposition, but
just as the question was about to be put, Mr. Laurens,
contrary to all precedent, rose, and with great ap-
pearance of candor and expressions of esteem for me,
informed Congress that some weeks before he had
received private letters from Mr. Izard, and as Mr.
Izard wished him to show them to Colonel Duer, he
desired that gentleman to call on him to jointly ex-
238 Silas Deane
amine the letters to see whether it was proper to lay
any part of them before Congress. Upon this Congress
voted to postpone all action on me to some future day.
That evening Deane called on Laurens and
was greeted by the solemn yet cordial president,
who piously told him that his call must be by the
direction of Divine Providence, for he was think-
ing of Izard's letters, which the two men proceeded
to consider. Those letters were written in Feb-
ruary, March, April, and June, 1778, and they
contained little more than complaints of the con-
duct of Franklin and Deane in negotiating the
treaties. Here is a sample: *'How these gentle-
men could take upon them to act so directly in
opposition to their instructions I cannot conceive.
Dr. Franklin has taken upon himself, expressly
contrary to the instructions of Congress, to with-
hold the treaty from me.'* Of Deane he said:
I shall avoid entering into particulars respecting this
gentleman, and shall only give my opinion of him,
which is that if the whole world had been searched,
I think it would have been impossible to find one
more unfit for the office into which he has by the
storm and convulsions of the times been shaken.
Of Franklin he wrote :
His abilities are great and his reputation high.
Removed as he is from the observations of his con-
Poverty and Gloom 239
stituents, if he is not guided by principles of virtue and
honor, those abilities and that reputation may pro-
duce the most mischievous effects. In my con-
science I declare to you that I believe to be under no
such internal restraints. . . . Nothing but my
own observation could have convinced me so thor-
oughly how undeservedly it is possible to be bestowed.
If anything was necessary to make the effrontery
which I have complained of complete, it was Dr.
Franklin's observation that if my observations were
ever so just, it was now too late for any remedy. His
tricks and chicanery put it out of my power to make
any objection, before the treaties were signed and
sent to America, and then he gives that as a reason
why no remedy should be attempted. In my con-
science I believe him to be an improper person to be
intrusted with the management of the affairs of
America in this kingdom. If sent to Vienna he will
not have an opportunity of doing any harm.
One smiles at the following comment of the
high-minded Izard on Franklin: "His tricks are
in general carried on with so much cunning that
it is exceedingly difficult to fix them on him. "
After reading these illuminating letters together,
Laurens, with professions of great friendship,
asked Deane's advice whether he should suppress
them as ebullitions of anger and resentment at
some supposed neglect, or lay them before Con-
gress. Deane saw through this flimsy schemer.
"I plainly saw," says he, "that Laurens wished
240 Silas Deane
me to advise the total suppression of the letters,
which advice he could afterward turn into a re-
quest on my part, to give the contents greater
force." Deane was too shrewd to fall into the
snare, but told Laurens that he was too much
interested to give advice, but the whole or none
should be given to Congress; that Laurens was
the proper judge; that the only charge against
himself was haughtiness of temper and inca-
pacity, while the charge against Franklin was
breach of trust and a want of any principles
either of virtue or honor, and that he could
answer for his absent friend as fully as for
himself ; that no specific charge could be brought
against either, which he would decline or evade
answering.
Laurens seemed undecided, said Izard was
passionate, but he was his friend, and to lay
the matter before Congress would tend to hurt
him. The next day Deane met Laurens coming
out of Congress, and with melancholy voice the
latter said, "I believe Mr. Izard will never for-
give me, for I have laid the whole letters before
Congress. "
The only effect of the letters was to defer action
on Deane's accounts. Every request for a hearing
was refused, and on October 3, a letter from
Poverty and Gloom 241
Arthur Lee was read in Congress, which com-
plained of Deane's unsettled accounts and ex-
travagant contracts, not charging him with
dishonesty, but only with imprudent management.
Congress passed no censure, but kept silent, until
Deane's public appeal of December 5, which was
resented by Laurens, who, on the morning of its
publication, left the chair because Deane reflected
I upon him, a fact which he thought should be
noticed by the House. Finding the majority
against him he resigned the presidency, and Jay
I was chosen in his place. From that hour Laurens
j became Deane's open and avowed enemy, and
faction and disorder became so rife that con-
i tending parties took arms, and shed blood in the
j streets.
] There is an interesting letter of Robert Morris
\ to Deane, dated December 5, 1785, which sheds
I light on this gloomy chapter in Deane's life.
I The great financier says he could not take up any
I of Deane's manufacturing schemes for lack of
{ funds; he advised him not to come to America,
j for he would risk a cool reception from those
I who persisted in attributing bad motives, and
j indifference from others who were convinced by
Deane's assurances, but lacked the courage to
avow their convictions. He continues:
16
242 Silas Deane
Those few who have charged your errors to im-
prudence, not wickedness, being unable to stem the
torrent, must give way to it. From the hand of time
alone can you expect that the impression against you
will be obliterated ; but in the course of things, a time
will come when people will be disposed to hear you and
to believe, because of such an opportunity, the ulti-
mate opinion.
A ray of comfort like this was meager enough to
a proud man compelled to entreat his brother
Barnabas to send him a few dollars to put bread
into his mouth. At other times black night shut
down upon him, as when, sick and helpless in
1788, he was robbed of his clothing, and of a part
of his valuable papers, which were sold to the
United States government. Deane suffered much
#Hhrough those years of isolation and poverty
in England. At length he gave up all expectation
of justice at the hands of Congress. Aside from
the fact that his country was wallowing through
the mire of financial depression, bankruptcy, and
distress, occasioned by the long war and de-
preciation of the currency, he clearly saw that
Congress would not vote to do him justice, because
such a vote would virtually condemn the men
who had for years so bitterly wronged him. In
such a combination and succession of losses, mis-
fortunes, and disappointments, we wonder that he
Poverty and Gloom 243
did not utterly lose heart and even mind ; that he
did not was no doubt due in some degree to the
fact that he never lost the hope of reestablish-
ing his fortune by some enterprise in America,
toward which he was ever looking.
CHAPTER XIV
deane's last enterprise and its failure
XV 7E have noticed how Deane had tried in vari-
ous ways to rebuild his shattered fortunes,
and regain his standing in the business world.
In July, 1785, he wrote his stepson, S. B. Webb,
that he was studying the manufacturing towns of
England, had seen a machine which spun nearly
five thousand threads at once; he was also in-
\ terested in a corn mill ; that he was intimately ac-
quainted with inventors who were making immense
fortunes ; that he was writing to several friends in
America about setting up mills.
About that time Deane proposed to the English
Ministry a plan for a navigation canal from Lake
Champlain to the St. Lawrence, via Chambly.
The fall is ninety feet, and, as early as 1775, he
had brought the project before Holdimand and his
successor, Lord Dorchester, governors of Quebec,
to open the lake to ships from England.
Additional study deepened his conviction that
it would be a valuable part of the system of inland
244
Fresh Hopes Die Away 245
navigation which gave England five thousand
miles of artificial waterways before the era of rail-
ways, and he gave the results of his studies to
Lord Sydney, explaining that it would open an
avenue from an extensive country to the West
Indies, for the carriage of cattle, hogs, flour,
lumber, and fish. He thought it could be built for
ten thousand pounds, and he asked for the office
of superintendent while building.
The enterprise comm.ended itself to the in-
fluential men to whom he applied, but the health
of the much-tried man was a question which must
be reckoned with. On June 30, 1 778, Deane wrote
Lord Sufifield that he was really too weak to write,
that his fever was constant and increasing, that he
was barely able to walk across the room. He says
that three days before, while going as" far as
"Bird Cage Walk," he accidentally met Irwin,
Lord Suffield's financial agent, and he relieved
Deane's extreme want; Wilkinson had also as-
sisted him with money. His friend Bancroft
would gladly help him were it possible, but he was
involved in vexatious lawsuits.
The language is realistic and touching; he
writes :
I get but little rest at night, for my coughing is
almost incessant, and my night-sweats, which but
246 Silas Deane
lately afflicted me, are profuse, so that I have scarcely
a thread of my linen dry in the morning. My appetite
is gone ; I have not eaten anything solid for more than
ten days. Fruit, a poached egg beat up in milk, warm
from the cow, with sugar, nutmeg, and some spirit in it,
have been my sole nourishment, nor has my stomach
at all times been able to bear even these ; and I have
frequently cold and aguish times of shivering. Ex-
cuse me, my lord, for being thus particular. I wish
to lay my case simply and without exaggeration or
coloring before you, that you may judge if I am obsti-
nate in declining, I may say in refusing, to go on ship-
board under these circumstances, and with a mind
distracted with reflections on the past, the present, and
the probable future.
In a word I may be carried on board, where want
of fruit, of milk, of vegetables, — in a word, of proper
attention, and of ever3^thing proper for a sick person, —
with heat and calms on the passage, and violent
equinoctial gales on the coast, which are almost
certain at this season; these, which I do not color
too highly, must cut short my voyage and prevent my
ever landing in America, although the ship may go
safe, and to persons in health it may be supportable.
But my physician is in favor of a voyage. My
lord, when a physician has a patient whose disorder
baffles him, he recommends to him a short voyage
to sea or the watering places ; or in short anywhere to
get him out of the way, and off his hands. I have
been to sea enough to know what it is in general, and
how it affects me, even when in full health and with a
mind at ease. I rely more on my friend Bancroft's
opinion than on that of almost any physician. He
knows my habits and temper, he has given up all
Fresh Hopes Die Away 247
thoughts of my embarking in my present state, and
until I can recover some degree of strength propor-
tionate to the voyage.
Irwin does not think himself authorized to assist
me out of your lordship's bounty in any way but in
procuring passage to America. My wish is to remove
to some healthy spot in the country for a few weeks,
until I get stronger, and able to bear the fatigue of the
voyage.
Deane had written to his brother to lend him a
little money by which he hoped to go into the
coimtry , and he adds to Lord Suffield :
I may hear from my brother ; but if there is no alter-
native left me but to embark in my present situation,
or to suffer the last extremity here, my case is indeed
a hard one. I have said perhaps too much, and I hope
your lordship will not take it amiss when you reflect
on my present distresses both of body and mind.
Those of the former have been hard indeed, and those
of the latter are such as I cannot describe ; they push
me at times to the verge of absolute distraction.
It is evident that Deane obtained help some-
where, for ten days after the letter to Lord Suffield,
Edward Bancroft wrote to J. T. Townsend that
he had procured the original drafts of Deane' s
observations on the canal, and inclosed them,
and he adds that it was Deane's intention to go
to Champlain that summer, if his observations
were honored with Lord Sydney's approval. The
248 Silas Deane
good doctor says: ''I fear his health will not
allow his venturing this season. He is going a
little way out of town. "
On August 10, 1778, Deane wrote his brother
Barnabas in Hartford that he had been confined
to his chamber in London most of the time since
December by complications occasioned in part and
largely increased by circumstances which at times
almost unhinged his mind. He said that the
assistance of a few friends had kept him from per-
ishing, and that for a great part of the time he had
scarcely been able to recollect one day what had
passed on the preceding, and while in that state
he had been plundered of clothes and valuable
papers; that his health was much improved and
that he should hope soon to undertake something
for his future support, so that he would not be
compelled to burden his friends.
His illness had seemed to destroy all prospects of
business, and he did not expect it to return. His
losses through his brother Simeon and the bank-
ruptcy of M. Chaumont had ruined him beyond
recovery; he nerved himself a little to say: ''I
cannot bear to go farther in the retrospect; I will
try to look forward."
Then comes another shadow across the page, as
he says:
Fresh Hopes Die Away 249
The account of my son distresses me extremely.
Should he be mad enough to come over here, I see
nothing to prevent his absolutely perishing from
want, as I am supported by the kindness, or I may
say charity, of friends, which I have no right to expect
the continuance of to myself, much less that it
should be extended to him.
His son did not return to England, and Lord
Dorchester and Lord Sydney gave their influence
in favor of the canal, and, in the autumn of 1788,
something of promise began to open, and the dis-
couraged man could write, ''This is on the whole
the most promising object before me. "
Then came the gloom, to which he was accus-
tomed, as he says: "But, alas, without the enjoy-
ment of health, or the means for even a present sub-
sistence, what can I depend on ? What can I do ? "
On November 10, 1788, in a letter to his brother
Barnabas, he said he had not written over three
letters in twelve months, and that for a still longer
period his health and distress of mind had beggared
description, and without the least relief. A year
before, he had caught a violent cold, which fell
on his limbs which became palsied, so that he
could scarcely help himself, but he had so far
recovered that he hoped in the spring to set sail
for America.
25a Silas Deane
The past was still haunting him, as he writes:
"I almost wish I could annihilate the power of
recollection; but if past errors and misfortunes
were to make us wise in the future, I ought to be
one of the wisest of men for the rest of my life. "
He says that previous to his illness he had
formed a plan for going into business in England,
but that prospect was gone, and the Champlain
canal was his only hope. ''To this," he writes,
"my whole attention is turned at present, 'but
the destruction of the poor is their poverty. ' "
The winter was cold, the severest in fifty years,
Deane' s health delicate, the political situation in
England doubtful, but the spring brought new
hope, and while there was delay, plans slowly
matured, and the exile gladly turned his eyes
toward America.
A melancholy interest gathers around the fact
that on June 25, 1789, Deane wrote three letters
to prominent Americans, making a last plea for
justice at the hands of Congress.
He wrote Jeremiah Wadsworth that he had
long since ceased to expect the balance due him;
but he desired that it might be fully known for the
satisfaction of the public, and especially of his
friends and family, whether or not he merited the
treatment he had met or any part of it.
Fresh Hopes Die Away 251
He wrote to George Washington that for more
than ten years he had sought the settlement of
his accounts, but with the new system of govern-
ment he was making one more appeal. He adds:
"Though reduced to the extremes of poverty and
to an infirm and precarious state of health by what
I have suffered, I still regard the past as of little
consequence if I can obtain what I have long
requested. "
And to his honored friend, John Jay, after a
long delay, Deane wrote, that he was encouraged
to send him one more letter because he heard that
Jay had inquired for him and expressed a wish for
his return. Deane says:
This leads me to hope that the surmises and
suggestions professed against me, having never in the
remotest degree been substantiated, may be dissi-
pated, and that any error in judgment, which is the
utmost any one can charge me with, is fully expiated
by what I have suffered.
After speaking of the charge of default, which
for ten years he had tried to bring to trial, he
urges the jurist to use his influence with the new
administration to have the case taken up and
decided; not because Deane expected any pe-
cuniary return, but for the sake of his family, and
^52 Silas Deane
especially of his son, he wished to have the cloud
removed from his name.
, On June 29, 1789, Deane wrote William S.
Johnson urging the plea, the valedictory appeal
near the close of the years of misery. He says:
If I have in any instance betrayed, or been un-
faithful in, the trust reposed in me by my country, let
it be made to appear. Justice to the public calls for it
as well as to the individual. I once more present my
case before the tribunal of my country for a fair and
full examination. I have been so long habituated to
poverty, that I can bear it, however reluctantly, but
Injustice to my character is unsupportable.
By the generosity of a friend in Boston, it was ar-
ranged that Deane should bid good-by to the scenes
of isolation and misery in England and sail for
America in the Boston packet with Captain Davis.
On Tuesday, September 22, 1789, Deane drove
as far as Gravesend with the captain, and the two
spent the night there ; in the morning they drove to
Deal and embarked, and the voyage began. At ten
o'clock, while walking the quarter-deck with the
captain, Deane said he did not feel well; the com-
plaint increasing, he was taken to the cabin, where
he almost immediately became speechless, and
continued so until his death, which occurred at
two in the afternoon.
Fresh Hopes Die Away ^ 253
The death was probably due to a complication
of disorders, the climax of a long period of illness
and weakness, and the vessel returned at once to
Deal for the burial of the disappointed man. The
record of interment, which is dated September 26,
1789, is as follows:
Silas Deane Esquire. He was Deputy of the State
of Connecticut to the first and second American Con-
gress; a Minister Plenipotentiary from the United
States of America to the Court of France in 1777,
and 1778, died in the Downs on his passage from
London to America. Register of Burials for the
Parish of Deal.
There is no gravestone but the interment is be-
lieved to have been in the St. George's Church-
yard.
Thus ended Deane's long course of trial and mis-
fortune, as he was setting out upon an expedition
which gave promise of financial profit and of a
renewal in some degree of the prosperity which
his superior business capacity and address had won
for him in the earlier years. "Time, the nurse,
and breeder of all good, " brought him little relief.
He died at the age of fifty-two; the Boston
packet went on without him, leaving Silas Deane,
disappointed for the last time.
CHAPTER XV
THE VINDICATION
\ Y 7E are now far enough removed from the
stormy scenes of prejudice and animosity,
in which Deane's lot was cast, to judge cahnly and
impartially the career and the character, and
pronounce an opinion which may have some
approach to fairness.
Soon after his death on the merchant ship a few
miles from Deal, there appeared in The Gentle-
man's Magazine, the following notice:
Died in the Downs, September 23, on board the
Boston packet, in his fifty-third year, after four hours'
illness, Silas Deane, a native of Groton, Conn., member
of the first and second Congresses, distinguished for
his literary merits, mercantile knowledge, policy, and
great zeal for liberty, and sequently, in 1776, ap-
pointed Ambassador by Congress to the Court of
France.
Soon after his arrival at Paris he proved his ability
by convincing the Court of France that their interest
would be promoted by giving supplies to the American
revolt. He purchased nearly half a million livres'
worth, depending on promises; recalled, he refused
254
Vindication 255
all kinds of payment, because not clear of suspicion of
being not friendly to the independence of America.
This political maneuver and Congressional mode
of discharging fair and honest debts by suspicions and
accusations compelled Mr. Deane to leave France
on a sudden, and finally take refuge in England,
where he received generous and friendly support,
while his eminent services and just demands on Con-
gress were disregarded by his fellow-patriots in France.
Thus lived and died his excellency Silas Deane,
whose name is rendered immortal in the calender of
policy by having ruined himself and family, and de-
ranged France ar d America, with the charming words.
Liberty, Constitution, and Rights.
The epicedium of Mr. Deane may be this: He was
second to very few in knowledge, plans, designs, and
execution ; deficient only in placing confidence in his
compatriots, and doing them service, before he had
got his compensation, of which no well-bred politician
was ever guilty.
Newspapers in England and America celebrated
Deane's passage from a world
Of struggle, and temptation, and retreat,
with scarcely a tender thought, though they said
that he was an illustration of the most remark-
able versatility of fortune which has occurred
perhaps within the present century ; that he lived
in great affluence at the Court of France, and
was presented by Louis XVI. with his picture
256 Silas Deane
set with brilliants, as a mark of respect on
account of his integrity and ability; but that
the charge of embezzlement led to his exile in
Holland, where his situation was little better
than starving, and afterward to life in England,
where he would have died of want, had not a
gentleman of fashion been an eye-witness that
he not only wanted food, but a bed to lie on ; that
a collection of about seventy pounds was made
for him. So reduced was he, that though he was
supposed to have embezzled upwards of a hundred
thousand pounds, he practically refuted the ma-
levolence of his enemies by experiencing all the
horrors of the most abject poverty, dying on ship-
board on his way to America— his last resort. The
finishing touch of the malice and falseness of
Deane's enemies was given in an article which was
published in London the next year after his death.
It was entitled, ''Theodosius, or a Solemn Ad-
monition to Protestant Dissenters." The author
is supposed to have been the Reverend Philip
Withers.
The narrative of this highly imaginative writer
begins with these words: "The last time I saw
Mr. Silas Deane he was on a bed of sickness and
death ; he sent for me. " Then the author proceeds
to relate a conversation which he says passed
Vindication 257
between himself and Deane in which the latter is
made to ' ' deny the existence of the Deity. ' ' Being
asked to "name the wretch" who had infused into
his mind "such horrid blasphemies, " he is said to
have named Dr. Priestly: and to have added,
"Yes, Dr. Priestly was my instructor, my savior,
and my God."
Why this writer, whom we refrain from char-
acterizing, did not consult Priestly before publish-
ing a statement so damaging in that age, can be as
easily explained as can many other things said
about Deane while he was alive.
The refutation is complete. The alleged dying
atheist, according to the written account of Cap-
tain Davis, after eating a hearty breakfast with him
at Gravesend, went on shipboard with the captain,
and the vessel started immediately; about ten
o'clock he became suddenly ill, was carried to the
cabin, and there for the first and only time was
laid upon his deathbed, on the bed on which he
died, and there, almost immediately, he became
speechless, and continued so until his death, which
occurred about two o'clock, four hours later.
The captain mentioned several persons who were
with Deane while on his deathbed, all of whom
appear to have belonged to the ship. None of
them were able to comprehend any of the in-
17
258 Silas Deane
articulate sounds when the dying man attempted
to speak.
Dr. Bancroft declares that this post-mortem
slander was absolutely false. He wrote: " I never
heard him intimate, much less profess, any dis-
belief in the Deity. On the contrary, I believe
on very good grounds that his religious sentiments
were exactly the same as those he had avowed
in France to several of his friends. "
We pass now from that trying, feverish period
through the calmer years to see what has been
the judgment of the country upon Silas Deane.
We find abundant illustration of that quality in
human nature of which Shakespeare spoke when
he wrote:
Men's evil manners live in brass; their virtues
We write in water.
It is the fashion of some writers on the men
and events of the Revolution to speak disparag-
ingly of Deane. All admit his ability within
certain limits and a measure of success in his mis-
sion to France, but some give evidence of im-
perfect knowledge of the man's life and work, and
in some instances reveal an apparent willingness
to condemn him on hearsay.
Evidently these writers have not read the
Vindication 259
testimony of Franklin, who was intimately as-
sociated with him in Paris, as to his integrity,
energy, and success; or that of Beaumarchais to
Deane's devotion and address which made his
work indispensable ; or that of the austere, honest,
if sometimes crabbed, John Adams, Deane's suc-
cessor as Commissioner, who would as soon falsify
as omit to read his Bible every morning, who
wrote in his immortal Diary in 1778: "Mr. Deane
lived expensively and seems not to have had much
order in his business, public or private; but he
was active, diligent, subtle, and successful, having
accomplished the great purpose of his mission to
advantage."
Surely the calm, judicial intelligence of John
Jay ought to have some weight in a matter of
this kind. Jay wrote Deane, March 28, 1781:
You merit the thanks, not the reproaches, of your
country. I believe you innocent of the malversations
imputed to you, and I feel for you the sympathy which
such an opinion must create in every honest mind. In
this enlightened age, when the noise of passion and
party shall have subsided, the voice of truth will be
heard and attended to.
The opinion of Robert Morris should not be
overlooked. He wrote in 1781 to Deane that his
character had been exceedingly traduced, and he
26o Silas Deane
longed to see it placed "in that respectable and
Tneritorious point of view which it deserves.'*
Again, and in 1785, he wrote: "From the hand
of time alone can you expect that the impression
against you will be obliterated; but in the course
of things a time will come when people will hear
and believe."
The statement of so honest and careful a man
as Franklin, given when Deane was recalled in
1778, should have decided weight. He said:
I have no doubt that he will be able clearly to justify
himself, but having lived intimately with him more
than fifteen months, the greatest part of the time in
the same house, and a constant witness of his public
conduct, I cannot avoid giving this testimony, though
unasked, that I esteem him a faithful, active, and
earnest minister, who, to my knowledge, has done in
various ways great and important services to his
country, whose interests I wish may always by every
one in her employ be as much and as efficiently
promoted.
Some of these statements have been given on
earlier pages, but they belong here also in the sum
of the testimony, of which most of the writers on
the period under consideration seem ignorant.
They are apparently ignorant also of the action
of Congress, fifty-three years after Deane 's death,
by which the foolish rumor of embezzlement was
Vindication 261
exploded, and his reputed claims for justice
acknowledged.
This calls for a description of the memorial of
the heirs of Deane, which was presented to Con-
gress, January 10, 1835, a^nd which led to the
official vindication.
We have spoken of Deane's son Jesse, who was
with his father in Europe and returned to America
in 1783. He died in 1830, leaving a daughter
Philura, who married Horatio Alden, and five
years after the death of Jesse Deane, Mr. and Mrs.
Alden presented to Congress a memorial which
reviewed the case from the time of Deane 's ap-
pointment until his death, calling to mind that his
reputation, in the judgment of Congress, was high,
from the fact that, in 177,5, he was solely and ex-
clusively employed by the Marine Committee to
equip and fit out a large naval force, and that he
may be called the "Father of the Revolution
Marine."
The memorial goes on to explain that his mission
to France for military supplies was successful;
that in March, 1777, he was recalled "with all
possible dispatch," since "it is of the greatest
importance that Congress at this critical juncture
be well informed of the state of affairs in Europe, "
with no reference to his accounts, which were de-
262 Silas Deane
manded on the two audiences he had with Con-
gress,— the only ones in fourteen months, though
he wrote repeatedly for an opportunity to state his
case.
Assured of the appointment of an auditor by
Congress, Deane returned to France, and for more
than a year was engaged with a clerk, at heavy
expense. Joshua Johnson declined to act as
auditor because of the conditions imposed, and
for two years after Deane 's dismission there was
no auditor. At length Barclay was appointed,
but his instructions did not cover Deane' s case.
After the publication of the nine private letters
in the Royal Gazette Deane was proscribed at
home and abroad. An exile in Ghent for a year
and a half, he lived in cheap lodgings, seeing only
those he could not avoid.
On May 22, 1782, Congress appointed a com-
missioner to settle all accounts. Not till then did
Barclay feel authorized to act on Deane's case, and
even then he could not close it.
In 1783, a committee consisting of Arthur Lee,
McHenry, and Gerry, was appointed to investi-
gate Deane's claims. This committee recom-
mended that he be allowed his expenses from
March, 1776, to January 4, 1778, and salary as
commissioner, also allowance of commissions of
Vindication 263
five per cent, to the time of his appointment as
ambassador.
Thus the right of Deane was fairly and fully
admitted. Probably this report never came to his
attention, and there is no evidence that Congress
took action on this report. In the correspondence
that followed between Deane and Barclay it was
made clear that all questionable items must be
referred to the immediate decision of Congress,
which was a practical denial of justice, and in-
definite postponement of the decision.
On September 30, 1 784, Barclay sent the accounts
to Robert Morris, Superintendent of Finance, who
referred them to the president of Congress, but no
action was taken. For nearly six years Deane
had sought settlement : he was poor, his credit as
a merchant ruined, he was driven to resort to
friends in a manner his proud spirit disdained, but
he was determined never to return to his country
till his accounts were settled. Denounced and
proscribed, his mental energies gave way, and from
1784 he gave up all hope of settlement.
Four months before his death an effort was
made by the government to get possession of
Deane's account and letter book, to the distress of
the owner.
Congress had voted a meager allowance to
264 Silas Deane
Deane, which was dedined as wholly inadequate
and unfair; and though Congress made good to
Arthur Lee the loss of nearly ten thousand dollars,
due to depreciation of currency, no such offer was
made to Deane.
The memorial states that Franklin's testimony
of December 18, 1783, to Deane's integrity was in-
valuable, and that when Robert Morris closed his
official relations to the public treasury he spoke
of the balances due Deane and a few others, saying :
It is much lamented that these are not paid. As
to Mr. Deane, he stands in such peculiar circumstances
that it would be odious to say anything in favor of
his claims, if the citizens of America were governed
by passion and caprice, instead of reason and re-
flection. But they know that whatever may have
been his services and sufferings, or whatever may be
his follies and faults, neither can affect the present
question. His claim of justice is not mended by his
merits, nor curtailed by his crime. Whether he is
criminal or innocent must be decided on hereafter by
that unerring tribunal from which there is no appeal.
But even admitting his guilt, it would be folly to
justify it by withholding his due.
The committees of Senate and House to which
this memorial was referred, after several years of
investigation, reported favorably, and, in 1842,
Congress appropriated thirty-seven thousand dol-
Vindication 265
lars to Deane*s heirs, on the ground that the former
audit made when Arthur Lee was Commissioner
of Accounts was ''ex parte, erroneous, and a gross
injustice to Silas Deane. "
Thus, more than half a century after the death
of Deane, the action of Congress, which Deane
vainly sought for years, was taken, a part of
the money due him was paid his heirs, and that
which he desired more earnestly than the money,
the vindication from the charge of embezzlement,
accomplished.
The question now arises, what is the verdict
of history as to the work and character of Deane.
There can be no question about the ability, effi-
ciency, and energy of the man. We have ample
testimony to his effectiveness. He was undoubt-
edly a man who stands in the front rank of the
leaders of the Revolution, and had it not been
for the malicious disparagement of Arthur Lee, he
would stand to-day with Franklin, Morris, and
Jay.
After an interval of one hundred and thirty years
it is time to recognize his great services, and ac-
knowledge the priceless debt the Republic owes
Deane for his inestimable work for the insurgents
struggling for independence.
The other question, that of character, is more
266 Silas Deane
difficult, and different minds will judge differently
the "intercepted letters. "
We must set aside as altogether erroneous the
notion that Deane was guilty of treason. He did
become discouraged, and he wrote some private
letters when cast down, and at a time when news
from America was peculiarly discouraging. He
failed of that grace
That can translate the stubbornness of fortune
Into so quiet and so sweet a style,
as to be calm and wise amid trials and disasters.
But Silas Deane was never a traitor. There is not
the slightest evidence that he was ever on familiar
terms with General Arnold while in London, or
that he was in the pay of the British Ministry.
Those who made the charges were either Deane 's
deadly enemies or men reckless with facts.
Those nine letters, written under a fearful strain
of disappointment, poverty, neglect, and calumny,
' were published by Tories who knew how to make
the most of them. Deane says they changed them
to suit their purpose.
We wish he had not written those letters. We
have done some things almost as foolish, but our
insignificance has usually shielded us from dis-
/ grace, and we have had opportunity to profit by
Vindication 267
our blunders. Less happy was Deane; his mis-
take was caught up greedily by his enemies and
used to ornament and advertise the lies they had
industriously circulated. We cannot conceive
of Olympian men like Washington or Franklin
writing such letters, but the Olympians are in a
select and lonely class. We wish some things
could be erased from the biographies of Moses,
David, Elijah, Luther, and Garfield. We would
rather not be judged by things said and done when
we were down-hearted; and no one with any
knowledge of human nature, or any pretense to
justice, would set aside the valuable and devoted
service of years, and blot with infamy an entire
life, because a man, hounded and conspired against,
in a moment of weakness lost his poise, and allowed
his pen to describe the blur and confusion engen-
dered by a mind almost distraught by suffering
and disaster.
It requires no special pleading to make out a
case for Deane. For years he was in a prison,
whose walls were a concrete of massive and deter-
mined conspiracy. Brave men as he havp grown
discouraged under conditions trying as his. Elijah
flung himself upon the ground and longed for death ;
John the Baptist in the prison of Machasrus ques-
tioned whether his message was a mistake ; Savona-
268 Silas Deane
rola dared to face angry councils, but he wavered
in the prison-cell of Florence; Jerome of Prague
in the dungeon of Constance recanted his faith,
then gathered courage and died a martyr; even
Luther was agitated by fantasies of incipient
madness in the castle of Wartburg, and we gladly
43hrow a veil over the serious blunders of his later
life.
^ There were many who were depressed over the
coi;idition of the country, and even after York-
town regretted the Revolution, but they were
-more fortunate than Deane. There is a letter of
Israel Putnam, written after the war, in which this
man, whose patriotism and sincerity no one ques-
tions, says that, in view of the wretched condition
of business and finance, and the many evils rising
on all sides, he longed for the days when the colo-
nies were under British rule, and if he could have
looked forward, he would not have entered the
war.
Robert Morris, the financier of the Revolution,
ruined himself and many others, and spent months
in a debtor's prison; yet we do not forget his
eminent services for his country.
Years of suffering from a malignity, and a con-
spiracy as pitiless as determined, wrought in
Deane 's mind despair for a country whose Con-
Vindication 269
gress could ignore plain justice in dealing with
him. The iron hand of desperation fell heavily
on a nature ungifted with dauntless hopefulness.
It is not easy for us in the security and wealth
of prosperous years to imagine the condition
of affairs when Deane wrote the fatal letters.
America seemed at the lowest ebb, politically,
financially, and in the army, to the lonely, home-
sick man, walking the streets of Paris, brooding in
his dreary lodgings, listening to dismal stories,
wafted across the sea, of faction, repudiation, and
mutinous soldiers ; pondering his own wrongs, hav-
ing long breathed the atmosphere of suspicion, of
accusation, covert and pronounced; determined
not to return to the hostility of a country so
dominated by his enemies, where just and friendly
men were perplexed by the stories ingeniously
scattered by his shrewd foes; unable to go into
business in Paris. It is not strange in conditions
like these that Deane should have made a serious
mistake.
Simple humanity requires us to bring the
quality of mercy to our judgment of a man who
for four years and a half had endured the de-
pressing stress of suffering and disappointment,
the continued assaults of malice, the unjust delays,
the temptations of a disposition naturally de-
270 Silas Deane
ficient in buoyant optimism, the sure approach
of poverty dreaded by a spirited man, the mental
anarchy occasioned by worry, insomnia, repeated
aXtatks of misfortune, and heart-sickening dis-
appointments.
It is not strange that Deane should take a
gloomy view of the future of his country in that
critical summer of ifSi — dark enough to Washing-
Jon as we know by history; a nightmare of a
summer to a man like Deane, tortured by a sense
of personal wrongs, and alarmed at the thought
of the dismal future into which his cotmtry seemed
to be plunging.
It is not strange that under such conditions
Deane should open his heart to a few friends in
letters strictly private, in which he asked if some
method might not be discovered to stop the
fearful war, while it could be done with honor.
Think of the career of this man, — the early
zeal, devotion, and achievements; the mission to
France and its success ; the hostility of powerful
leaders; the paralysis of Congress; the undertow
of disparagement; the studied neglect; the var-
nished falseness; encroaching, overwhelming pov-
erty; the newspaper lies; hopes blossoming then
fading; the death of his wife and breaking up of
his home; the ill-health of his son; the stiff fight
Vindication 271
to pay bills and keep up courage; illness and death
under the shadow and burden; the passing away
of the tortured Commissioner from the cabin of the
packet, his last hope slipping through his nerveless
and trembling fingers, as his eyes, wearied with
gazing across the waters toward Congress, glaze
in death.
We, who look through the steadying years to
that scene of struggle, of pathetic endeavor, of
gathering sorrows, of threating ruin, see an able
and honest man, a true patriot, a skillful and
effective executive, whose deeds deserve the
gratitude of the Republic; whose mistakes in a
world like this, made under he^avy strain, in the
deep gloom that just preceded the dawn, ought
not to overwhelm with dire condemnation a man
who on the whole was true to his country. ,
INDEX
Adams, John, on committee
to inquire about ore, 30;
Journal of, quoted, 31, 154;
proposal of, 40; writes, of
Franklin, 96; replaces Deane,
137 ; States Rights party, 142 ;
Holland refuses, 177; away
from Congress, 188; 31, 146,
259
Adams, Samuel, on committee
to send letter to Canada, 30;
a member of Committee of
Ways and Means, 30; Lee
writes to, 98, 131; States
Rights party, 142; 146, 156
Albany, the British in, 105; 2
Alden, Horatio, marries Phi-
lura Deane, 261
Allen, Col. Ethan, captures
Fort Ticonteroga, 28
America, France lends money
to, 60; Steuben goes to, 84;
Deane returns to, 130; hard
times in, 142; Deane leaves,
158; Deane a martyr to, 162;
Deane's remarks about, 174;
Deane writes friends in, 182;
Deane's fears for, 188 ff.;
weakness of, 190; fortunes
of, 193; French army in, 195;
Deane considered enemy of,
198; the treaty with, 226;
Deane hopes to go to, 249;
Deane starts for, 252; news-
papers in, 255
American Revolution, New Ma-
terials on the, by Durand,
referred to, 56
Amphitrite, The, carries arms,
90; returns to port, 1 00;
arrives at Portsmouth, loi;
arrest of captain of, 106; 82,
226
Arnold, Benedict, interview
with Parsons, 28; Deane's
name coupled with, 180;
calls on Deane, 217; repulsed
by Deane, 217; 195, 203, 266
Aslop, 236
Austin, J. L., in France, 106;
sails for France, no
Bancroft, Edward, Deane
writes to, 197, 208; writes
of Deane, 202; writes Town-
send, 247; defends Deane,
258; 48, 113, 245
Barbary, trade with, 11
Barcelona, handkerchiefs from,
10
Barclay, Thomas, Deane hears
from, 203; Deane writes,
221; 207, 225, 234, 261, 263
Bath, 231
Bayard, Mr., 23
Bay Colony, opposition to
Stamp Act in, 14
Beaumarchais, Caron de, writes
of Deane, 44; head of Rode-
rique & Co., 53; writes Ver-
gennes, 53; birth of, 54;
Controller of the Pantry, 54;
marriage of, 54; enthusiastic
in the cause of America, 56;
writes Lee, 56; writes Louis
XVI, 58; again writes Louis,
59; as agent for colonies, 60;
forms his company, 6 1 ; Deane
sent to, 61; Deane writes of,
61; writes Committee of
273
274
Index
Beaumarchais, Caron de {Con.)
Congress, 62; writes of plans
to King, 62; receives no re-
ceipt for supplies, 64; begs
Congress for payments, 67;
writes his agent, 67; Jay
writes to, 69; money gives
out, 70; writes Congress of
ingratitude, 71 ; flees to Ham-
burg, 71; Congress finally
settles debt of, 72; Deane
writes Congress of, 72;
Deane does business with,
73; Deane asks for supplies
from, 74, 75; writes to Deane
75; Deane writes of, 87;
supplies furnished by, 91;
Vergennes criticizes, 100;
guest of the Commissioners,
III; and Lee, 115; writes
Deane's praises, 125; sym-
pathizes with Deane, 127;
letter to Congress, 128;
letter of, 135; writes of
Deane, 171; writes Deane,
1 78 ; writes of Deane to Mor-
ris, 205; Deane writes, 219;
Deane quotes, 226; Deane
writes, 232; 65, loi, 116,
119, 121, 134*259
Belden, Capt., in the General
Assembly, 18
Berlin, Lee seeks help from,
102; Court of, 131, 145
Bermudas, Deane sails by way
of»43
"Bird Cage Walk," 245
Bilboa, trade with, 11
Birmingham, Deane in, 234
Bordeaux, 87; 119, 236
Boston, coach from New York
to, 5; sympathy for, 18 ; dele-
gates from, 23; Perch sails
from, no; Port Bill, 27;
38
Boston packet, Deane to sail
in, 252
Boulogne, 64
Bourbon, House of, Deane
writes of, 204
Brandy wine, the defeat of, 105
Brazil, tobacco of, 185
British Ministry, Deane said
to be in pay of, 200; 20, 231,
266
British West Indies, 186
Broglie, Comte de, see De
Broglie
Brussels, 198
Buckle, referred to, 92
Buckley, Jonathan, 8
Bulkley, Capt. John, runs
cattle ship, 1 1
Burgesses, House of, 19, 27
Burgoyne, surrender of, 39;
surrender at Saratoga of, 90;
news of surrender of , 1 1 o ; 9 1 ,
103, 105, 130, 226
Burke, 117
Cambridge, camp at, 28
Canada, committee to send
letter to, 30; 91, 186
Canary Islands, slave markets
in, 4
Caribbean Islands, cattle ship
run to, II
Carmichael, William, accuses
Deane, 136; Nicholson writes,
156; 156, 173, 177
Caron, father of Beaumar-
chais, 54
Cassandra, 164, 183, 194
Cato, 94
Chambly, 244
Champlain, Lake, Deane's
plan for, 244; Deane's plans
to go to, 247; 250
Charleston, blacks for, 5
Charybdis, 189
Chastellux, confers with De
Grasse, 193
Chaumont, Le Ray de, Frank-
lin visits, 95; Deane writes
to, 210; 216, 248
Chesapeake, 227
Chester, Leonard, owner of a
"Neager Maide," 4; 5
Chester, Col., 16
Chester, Captain, 27
Index
275
Choiseul, Due de, Prime Min-
ister, 57
Clinton, Sir Henry, Lord North
to, 201
Clinton, Gen., 229
Collier Swamp, a part of the
town of Wethersfield, 7
Commerce, Deane's fears for
185 ff.; Deane's ideas about,
^33 . .
Commissioners, appointment
of three, 92; call on Ver-
gennes, 100; debts of the,
104; go on with contracts,
105; no word from the Court
to, 105; sign treaty, 106, 107;
object of, 108; presented to
Louis XVI, 113; call on
Madame Lafayette, 114;
dine with Vergennes, 114;
strife among, 149; 112
Congress, Deane sent to first,
18; held in Philadelphia, 20;
Deane sets forth for, 21;
the first, meets, 27; doings of
the first, 28; the second, 28;
Committee of, Beaumar-
chais writes, 62; perplexed
by Lee's lies, 65; writes to
Vergennes, 68; Deane writes
to, 70; Committee of, Deane
writes to, 74; Lee's corre-
spondence with, 115; Deane
reports to, 133; Deane at-
tends, 135; Deane writes to,
139; hard up for money, 142;
for and against Deane, 144;
Deane v/rites, 155; dis-
charges Deane, 157; Deane
writes, 158; hostility to
Deane of, 159; ruins credit
in Europe, 166; Deane
writes to, 175; Deane writes
of, 183; Deane speaks of. 188;
reduces currency, 189; hos-
tility of, 229; Lee writes to,
241 ; no justice for Deane in,
242; Deane's last plea to,
250; Deane's heirs' memorial
to, 261 ; finally settles Deane's
case, 262; pays debt to
Deane's heirs, 264; 35, 147,
161, 165, 170, 179, 187, 222,
224, 227, 228, 238, 264
Connecticut, Oldham ascends
the, I ; tries to stop impor-
tation, 16; merchants of,
against Newport, 18; Horse
Guard of, 91; hostilities of
Pennsylvania and, 190;
Deane's advice to, 215; 26
Connecticut Assembly, votes
a committee of nine, 19
Connecticut Courant, The,
weekly paper, 5
Connecticut Gazette, item from,
109
Connecticut, Governor of, com-
plains to British Secretary,
20
Controller of the Pantry of the
King's Household, 54
Constance, Dungeon of, re-
ferred to, 268
Constitution of United States,
14
Comwallis, surrender of, 39;
180, 193, 229
Correspondence, Committee of,
founding of, 19; Deane's
work on, 21; Deane writes
to, 50
Cotton, reaction against, 13
Coudray, M. de, furious at
Beaumarchais, 66; Deane
writes of, 74; Deane signs
agreement with, 76; a great
disappointment to Deane, 77 ;
makes trouble in America,
77;, death of, 78; 75, 91
Creasy, referred to, no
Crown Point, 2, 105
Cuba, tobacco of, 185
Dartmouth, Earl of, British
Secretary of State, 20
Dartmouth, Lord, 99
Davis, Capt., Deane to sail
with, 252; tells of Deane's
death, 257
276
Index
David, referred to, 267
De Broglie, Comte, Deane
writes of, 78, 79; De Kalb
writes to, 83; 83, 91
D'Estaing, 134, 156, 158, 161
De Grasse, Admiral, French
fleet in command of, 39; on
way to America, 180; at
Yorktown, 191; 193, 228
De Kalb, pleads for De Bro-
glie, 79; goes to America, 82;
embarks with Lafayette, 83;
Baron, Deane speaks of, 88 ;
91. 134
De Lomenie, referred to, 66;
63, 107
De Rochambeau, Count, Mor-
ris borrows from, 40
De Segur, Comte, referred to,
94
Deal, Deane 's grave in, 181;
254
Deane, Barnabas, letters to,
from Silas, 142, 164, 173,
179, 180, 194, 248, 249;
Silas writes of illness to, 193;
writes Jacob Sebor, 196;
Silas writes of intercepted
letters to, 208; Silas writes
of son to, 216; Silas has to
beg of, 242
Deane, Elizabeth, death of,
109
Deane, Jesse, birth of, 3; takes
leave of his father, 42 ; father
writes of, 166; illness of, 216;
messenger for his father,
221; death of, 261
Deane, Philura, granddaughter
of Silas, 261
Deane, Silas, starts business
in Wethersfield, 2; birth and
early life of, 3; marriage of.
3; becomes well known, 3;
birth of only child of, 3;
death of wife and remarriage
of, 3; a prominent church-
man, 5; early letters of, 6;
food in time of, 10; the store
of, 10; interest in political
events, 14; on committee to
stop importation of goods,
17 ; signs circular, 18 ; contrib-
utes to people of Boston,
18; a member of the General
Assembly, 18; to receive
money for buoys and sig-
nals, 19; secretary of Com-
mittee of Correspondence,
19; on committee concerning
western lands, 19; one of six
to confer with upper house,
20; sent to Philadelphia
to Continental Congress,
20; sent to Philadelphia to
represent Connecticut, 21;
writes to Governor Trum-
bull, 21; leaves Wethers-
field for Congress, 21; the
escort of, 22; arrival in
New York of, 22; letters to
his wife from, 23 ff.; is
pleased with other delegates,
25; proud to represent Con-
necticut, 26; writings of, 27;
elected to second Congress,
28; raises money for taking
of Fort Ticonteroga, 28; is
put on many important com-
mittees, 29; makes rules for
Continental navy, 29; mem-
ber of the Committee of
Secrecy, 29; chairman of
Committee of Ways and
Means, 30; appointed to
send letter to Canada, 30;
appointed to make rules
and drafts for army, 30;
on committee for inquiries
about ore, 30; on committee
to import arms and ammu-
nition, 30; on committee for
provisions for army, 30;
debates taken part in by, 31 ;
his acquaintance with George
Washington, 32; letters to
his wife, 32 et seq.; the
valedictory of, 34, 35; failure
to election for third term at
Congress, 35; letter to his
Index
277
Deane, Silas {Continued)
wife, 36; goes to New York
to buy a ship, 36; last letter
to wife from Congress, 37;
explains making of guns to
committee, 38; ammunition
sent from France by, 39;
chosen to go to France to
ask for help, 41 ; letter to
wife, before sailing, 43; jour-
ney _ to France of, 43, 44;
advice from the committee
to, 44 fi.; instructions and
advice from the committee
to, 44 ff.; has interview with
M. Vergennes, minister of
French affairs, 49; sends
letter to Committee of Cor-
respondence, 50, 51 ; waits on
M. Dubourg, 52; is success-
ful in his mission to France,
53; letter from, 61; Arthur
Lee enraged against, 63;
Lee tells many lies about,
65; seeks money to settle
Beaumarchais' claims, 70;
writes to Congress, 70; letter
to Congress, 72; letter to
Committee of Congress from,
74; signs agreement with
General Coudray, 76; writes
to Committee of Secret
Correspondence, 78; writes
committee concerning Comte
de Broglie, 79; much per-
plexed at not hearing from
Congress, 80; writes commit-
tee of Lafayette, 84; sends
Baron Steuben to America,
84; writes to a French firm,
85; writes Secret Committee
of uneasiness, 86; writes
committee, 87; writes to
committee of ammunition
sent, 88; Arthur Lee ap-
pointed to serve with, 89;
gives good results as com-
missioner, 91; position in
France of, 92; writes of
Franklin's arrival in Paris
93; with Franklin at Passy,
97; Lee recommends sending
to Holland of, 98; writes, 99;
and Arthur Lee, 99, 100;
misfortunes of, 100, loi;
buys and forwards supplies,
102; goes to Fontainebleau
for money, 103; gets the
money, 104; writes, 106;
signs treaty at Passy, 107;
tries to secure loan from
Holland, 108; recalled to
America, 108; writes Dumas,
109; death of wife of, 109;
calls on Vergennes, 112; ur-
ges strong squadron, 113;
urges declaration of treaties
to Court of London, 113;
goes to Louis XVI, 113; calls
on Madame de Lafayette,
114; dines with M. Ver-
gennes, 114; starts for the
coast, 114; Lee's efforts to
get him into trouble, 115;
troubles between Lee and,
117 ff.; writes to Vergennes,
118; bearer of a letter from
Franklin to Congress, 124;
Beaumarchais writes to Con-
gress of, 125; friends offer
sympathy on his recall, 127
ff.; receives gold box, 129;
reaches Philadelphia, 133;
reaches Delaware Bay, 134;
welcomed by friends, 135;
goes to Congress, to report,
135; accusations against, by
Izard, 136; hears of conspir-
acy against him, 137; again
writes Congress, 137; Izard's
letter complaining of, 138;
replies to charges, 138 ff.;
goes before Congress, 140 ff. ;
people for and against, 144;
speech in Philadelphia by,
144 ff. ; no attempts made by
Congress to clear, 147; card
in Packet by, 148; profitless
discussion by, 149; replies
to some of Lee's charges,
278
Index
Deane, Silas (Continued)
151; writes to Congress,
155; sends a memorial to
Congress, 157; leaves for
France, 158; writes of Phila-
delphia, 158; in France
again, 160; unsuccessful at-
tempt to clear his name, 161 ;
Morris writes about, 160 ff.;
writes to Joseph Webb, 164;
outline of case of, 164, 165;
receives letter from Morris,
165; still in good standing in
France, 166; depreciation of
property of, 168; letter from
Jay to, 168; writes to John
Paul Jones, 171; letter to
Vergennes concerning, 171;
receives letter from John
Jay, 173; writes to Congress,
175; receives letter from
Morris, 176; sends account
to Philadelphia, 177; letter
to, from Beaumarchais, 178,
179; writes to James Wilson,
180; writes to Benj. Tall-
madge, 181 ; writes to friends
in America, 182; writes to
Col. Duer, 183; letters of,
taken by British and pub-
lished, 183; worried about
our commerce, 185; writes
to J. Wads worth, 187;
writes to General Parsons,
188 ; writes to Charles Thom-
son, 188; fears for his
country, 189; writes to
James Wilson, 190; writes
to Jesse Root, 190; explains
change of opinion, 190;
broods over independency of
America, 190; writes Tall-
madge, 191; writes to Gen.
Parsons, 191; writes James
Wilson, 194; complains to
Jay of newspapers, 194;
fears America will suffer
from French army, 195;
hears his letters have been
published, 195; writes to
Trumbull, 195; Jay warned
against, 196; letter from
Wadsworth to, 196; writes
Edward Bancroft, 197; in-
terviews with Elkanah Wat-
son, 198; views about, 199;
a plea for him, 200; letter
from King George about,
200, 201 ; thought in pay of
British, 201 ; enemies enjoy
his intercepted letters, 202;
Tallmadge writes to, 203;
writes of his illness, 203;
Franklin writes concerning,
203, 204; writes concerning
Arnold, 204, 205; newspaper
abuses of, 206; writes of his
poverty, 207; letters to
brothers intercepted, 208;
writes to Bancroft, 208;
letter from Jay to, 209, 210;
writes to M. Chaumont,
210; replies to Jay's letter,
211; story of his exile in
Ghent, 213; advises law-
makers of Connecticut, 215;
writes James Wilson, 216;
unhappy experiences in
London, 217; studies ma-
chines, 221 ; tries to see Jay,
221; writes to Thomas Bar-
clay, 221; sends issue to
people of United States,
221 ff.; Isone does not help
him with people, 229 ; corre-
spondence with Jay, 229 ff . ; j
commercial charges against, i
23 1 ; accused of defraud-
ing the Webbs, 231; tours
among manufacturing towns,
233 ; charges made by Henry
Laurens against, 234; answer,
Laurens against, 234; an-
swers Laurens ' s charges ,235;
received by Laurens, 235; |
finds Laurens is in conspir- *
acy against, 235; writes of
Laurens, 237; calls on Lau-
rens, 238; Izard's letter
about, 238; Laurens asks his
Index
279
Deane, Silas {Continued)
advice, 239; letter from
Morris to, 241; has to beg
money from brother, 242;
gives up hope of receiving
justice, 242; writes stepson
S. B. Webb, 244; plans
navigation canal, 244; writes
Lord Suffield of his illness,
245 ff. ; asks for money to go
away, 247; writes Wads-
worth, 250; writes George
Washington, 251; writes
William S. Johnson, 252;
embarks for America, 252;
death of, 252; burial notice
of, 253; notice in Gentleman' s
Magazine about, 254; article
by Reverend Withers, 256;
Jay's letter to, 259; Morris's
letter to, 259, 260; vindica-
tion by Congress of, 260;
memorial of, given to Con-
gress, 261 ; full description of
troubles given to Congress,
261 ff.; money belonging to,
paid to heirs of, 264; posi-
tion in history of, 265 ff.;
writes to brother Simeon,
166, 172, 177, 188, 215, 220,
232 ; writes to John Jay, 167,
168, 174, 177, 180, 230, 251;
writes to Robert Morris, 88,
183, 191; writes to brother
Barnabas, 142, 164, 173,
179, 180, 193, 194, 216, 248,
249; writes Franklin, 218,
219, 221; letter to Beau-
marchais, 75, 219; 8, 71, 73,
82, 96, 102, 175
Deane, Simeon, letters to,
from Silas, 166, 172, 177,
188, 215, 220, 232; 248
Declaration of Independence,
73, 86, 228
Deerfield, 2
Delaware Bay, fleet to, 113;
Deane reaches, 134
Dickinson, John, 31, 130, 138,
189
Doniel, M., 108
Dorchester, Lord, Governor
of Quebec, 244; approves
Deane 's plans, 249
Duane, Deane 's name coupled
with, 180; 195
Dubourg, M,, Deane carries
letter to, 44, 52 ; willingness
to help America, 52; indis-
creet talking done by, 53
Duche, Reverend Mr., prayer
by, 27
Duer, Col. William, friend of
Lee, 121; Deane's letter to,
183; 156,237
Dumas, C. W. F., Deane
writes, 109
Dumas, M., agent of the" col-
onies in Holland, 48
Dunkirk, 119
Durand, writes of Beaumar-
chais and Lee, 56; referred
to, 107;
Durkee, head of force, 15
Dyer, Eliphalet, a delegate
for Connecticut, 21; joins
Deane, 22; elected to second
Congress, 28 ; 37
Edinburgh, Lee in, 97
Elijah, referred to, 267
England, trade with, 11; at
war with Holland, 172; in-
crease of navy, 188; strength
of, 190; Deane travels in,
234; political situation in,
250; newspapers in, 255; 88,
191
English Ministry, Deane and,
Eton, Lee m, 97
Europe, 106
Fabius, 94
Faubourg du Temple, 64
Fier Roderique, a man-of-war,
70
Figaro, Le Mariage ^e, 54
Finances of the Revolution, by
Sumner, 161
28o
Index
Fitch, Geo., protects Ingersoll,
15
Flamand, The, sailing of, 90
Florence, 268
Florida, 186
Folger, Captain, 235
Fox, Charles James, speaks of
treaty, 107; 146, 212
Fontainebleau, Deane goes to,
103
France, arms sent from, 39;
mission of Deane to, 40;
Congress looks for help from,
41; Deane offers commerce
to, 45; Turgot against help-
ing America, 57; benefits to,
through colonies' freedom,
58; lends money to, 60;
receives no announcement of
Declaration of Independence,
86; scientific activity in, 92;
Austin arrives in, no;
Court of, 131; Deane returns
to, 160; grows wary, 190;
Deane considered enemy of,
198; Deane's mission to,
258; 47, 105, 172, 191
Francy, M., sent to America,
67
Franklin, on committee to
inquire about ore, 30; opposes
asking for help, 41; sends
Deane to France, 41, 42;
sends letters by Deane, 44;
friendship for M. Dubourg,
52; letters to, from Deane,
61, 204, 218, 221; insists on
payment of notes, 70; writes
to Lovell, 76; opposed to
Steuben, 84; Deane's work
with, 89; in Paris, 93;
writes daughter, 96; meets
Austin, no; presented to
Louis XVI, 113; accounts
given to, 114; Lee writes of,
115; joins Deane, 118; Lee's
charges against, 123; writes
Congress of Deane, 124;
Lee writes of, 131; letter of,
135; National party, 142;
report of, is confirmed, 144;
Lovell writes to, 150; Deane
quotes, 152; writes to Lee,
154; Deane goes to, 158;
Deane returns to, 158; Mor-
ris writes to, 162; away from
Congress, 188; writes of
Deane to Livingston, 203;
writes of Deane to Morris,
204; certificate of, 206;
writes Lord Howe, 228; Iz-
ard writes of, 238; testimony
of Deane by, 259; 35, 66, 92,
102, 113, 130, 134, 140, 143,
156, 160, 161, 165, 184, 191,
222, 223, 260, 265, 267
Frederick the Great, Steuben
under, 84; Franklin com-
pared to, 96
French West India Islands, 86
Garfield, 267
Gates, General, bears letter
from Deane, 33
General Assembly, 18
Gentleman's Magazine, The,
Deane's death notice in,
254
George, King, letter of, quoted,
201 ; defends Deane, 202
Gerard, Secretary of Foreign
Affairs, 53; Deane meets,
114; writes Vergennes, 116;
champion for Franklin, 123;
French Minister to America,
133; met by delegation, 133;
writes Vergennes, 143; de-
fends Deane, 146; describes
R. H. Lee, 151 ; 129, 143, 156,
158, 161
Germany, Lee travels in, 97;
84, 145
Gerry, 262
Ghent, Deane in, 181, 195,213;
193, 217, 262
Gibraltar, trade with, 11
Glynn, 117
Grand, Frederick, gives Deane
accounts, 114; Deane writes
of illness to, 203; 104, 223
Index
281
Gravesend, Deane's death at,
252; 257
Great Britain, 186
Great River, thoroughfare for
shipping, II
Green Mountain Boys and
Col. Ethan Allen, 29
Groton, Silas Deane from, 3
Hamburg, H6tel de, Franklin
lodges at, 95
Hamilton, Alexander, examines
Beaumarchais' claims, 71
Hancock, John, Deane writes,
135 ; National party, 142 ; 129
Harris, Sir Robert, 218
Harrison, 130
Hartford, and Wethersfield,
3; weekly paper from, 5;
views on the Revolution, 13;
delegates from, 14; Ingersoll
starts for, 15; 248
Havana, 2
Havre de Grace, 88, 119
Henry of Prussia, Prince,
Steuben carries letters from,
84
Hill's Tavern, Deane puts up
at, 22
Holdimand, Governor of Que-
bec, 244
Holker, Deane negotiates with,
102; Lee writes of, 122; 119
Holland, Deane advised to go
to, 48; Lee travels in, 97;
Lee seeks help from, 102;
will not lend money, 177;
108, 131, 139, 172, 256
Hooker, Thomas, theory of
government, 13
Hopkins, General, of Maryland,
86
Horse Guard of Connecticut,
the governor's, 91
Hortalez & Co. See Rode-
rique, Hortalez & Co.
Hosmer, a member of Congress,
137; explanation of, 149; 235
Howe, Lord, Franklin writes,
228
Howe, Gen., 103
Independent Empire, 46
Ingersoll, Jared, stamp-master
14; resigns as stamp-master,
16
"Intercepted Letters," publi-
cation and scandal of, 182,
225
Ireland, New England trade
with, 11; flaxseed from, 186
Irwin, assists Deane, 245; 247
Isham, Charles, defends Deane,
201
Izard, Ralph, friend of Lee,
121; Lee writes of, 131;
letters from, 136; Deane
answers charges of, 137; is
recalled, 144; writes of
Deane, 238; 96, 142, 156,
175. 235. 240
Jay, John, on committee to
send letter to Canada, 30;
sends Deane to France, 41,
42; writes Beaumarchais, 69;
Deane writes to, 88, 167,
168, 174, 177, 180, 194, 207,
211, 212, 230, 251; Morris
writes to, 160; writes Deane,
168, 173, 209; Livingston
writes of Deane to, 196;
Deane miSvSes seeing, 221;
correspondence with Deane,
229; chosen president of
Congress, 241 ; opinion of
Deane, 259; 31, 35, 130, 184,
265
Jefferson, Thomas, writes of
Vergennes, 58; declines to
go to France, 89; National
party, 142; no longer mem-
ber of Congress, 189; 30, 92
Jennings, Mr., Lee writes of,
131
Jerome of Prague, referred to,
268
John the Baptist, referred to,
267
Johnson, Joshua, 172, 262
282
Index
Johnson, William S., Deane
writes, 252
Jones, Paul, Captain of the
Ranger, iii; Deane writes,
171
Jones, Sir William, 117
Knox, confers with De Grasse,
193
Kalb, see De Kalb
Lafayette, in command of
French soldiers, 39; De Kalb
embarks with, 83; commis-
sioned by Deane , 84 ; 9 1 , 1 34,
193
Lafayette, Madame de, com-
missioners call on, 114
Langdon, John, accusations by
Lee against, 99; 115
Laurens, Henry, friend of Lee,
121; president of Congress,
135. 155 J enemy of Deane,
156; writes to Livingston,
231; accuses Deane, 234; in
conspiracy against Deane,
235; Deane answers charges
of, 235-240
L'Orient, vessels sailing from,
captured by British, 182
Le Ray, M., Deane has letter
to, 44
Ledlie, Mr., Deane writes of,
24
Lee, Mr. Arthur, agent of the
colonies in London, 49 ; a law
student, 55 ; writes the Secret
Committee, 56; Beaumar-
chais writes, 56; schemes of,
59; plays part of lago, 63;
lies of, 65; keeps lying to
Congress, 67 ; appointed
commissioner, 89; arrives
in Paris, 89; Deane's work
with, 89; arrives in Passy,
97; nominated Franklin's
successor, 98; writes false
charges against Franklin,
98; writes his brothers and
Adams, 98; Deane writes of,
106; treachery of, 107; cor-
respondence with Congress
of, 107; as traitor, 107; pre-
sented to Louis XVI, 113;
accounts given to, 114; and
Beaumarchais , 115; disap-
pointment of, 115; attacks
Franklin and Deane, 115;
temperament of, 116 ff.;
comes to Paris, 118; joins
Deane, 118; consulted about
contracts, 119; criticism of
Deane by, 119; jealousy of ,
120; selfishness of, 121;
charges against Deane by,
121 ff. ; Beaumarchais writes
of, 125; writes brother, 131,
134; letters of, 136; Deane
answers charges of, 137;
Adams friendly to, 143;
Gerard writes of, 143; is re-
called, 144; Deane writes of ,
145 ff.; Franklin writes to,
154; Nicholson writes of,
156; schemes of, 132; Deane
writes of, 167; Jones suffers
from, 171; accounts of, 177;
Deane accuses, 222; letter
from, 241; 62, 75, 92, 102,
112, 120, 130, 139, 142, 151,
160, 165, 235, 262, 264, 265
Lee, Richard Henry, brother
to Arthur, 97, 121; Arthur
writes to, 121, 131; 146,
151
Lee, William, the Alderman,
131; is recalled, 144; Deane
writes of, 145; letter to
Samuel Thorpe, 206; 235
Leibnitz, Franklin compared
with, 96
Lewis, 236
Lexington, battle of , 38
Lisb6n, slave markets in, 4;
trade with, 1 1
Livingston, R. R., National
party, 142; writes Jay of
Deane, 196; Franklin writes
of Deane to, 203; Laurens
writes to, 231; 236
Index
283
London, Deane in, 215; Deane
confined in, 248
Long Wharf, in Boston, no
Louis XVI; recognizes Repub-
lic, 112; commissioners pre-
sented to, 113; 45, 56, 57,
255
Louisburg, 2
Lovell, James, Franklin writes
to, 76; recalls Deane, 108;
letter from, 114; writes to
Franklin, 130, 150
Luther, referred to, 267, 268
Madison, James, writes of
Vergennes, 58; National par-
ty, 142
Madrid, French ambassador
at, 60; Court of, 156; 131
March, Rev. John, 8
Marine Committee, 261
Marseilles, 141
Martinico, 149
Martinique, 165
Maryland, 63
Mason, no longer member of
Congress, 189
Massachusetts, tries to drop
importation of goods, 16;
Franklin agent for, 97; 26
Massachusetts Bay Colony, 13
Massachusetts Council, no
Maurepas, head of the Cabinet,
57
Maurepas, Count, 51
Maurice, 236
May, Deacon, 5
McFingal, by John Trumbull,
199
McHenry, 262
Mercure, The, carries arms, 90;
226
Mercury, The, fate of, 149
Middletown, Col. Parsons of,
28
Middletown, i
Mill Brook, first grist mill
built in, 6
Minister of the Court, 76
Mohawks, 2
Montheu, Lee writes of, 122;
119
Morris, Robert, member of
Committee of Ways and
Means, 30; Washington
writes to, 40; sends Deane
to France, 41, 42; letters to,
from Deane, 61, 80, 84, 85,
88, 177, 191 ; letters to Deane
from, 89, 165, 176, 241; Na-
tional party, 142; defends
Deane, 148; writes of Deane,
160, 161; writes to Deane,
162; writes Franklin, 162;
Deane's letter to, 183;
Franklin writes of Deane to,
204; Beaumarchais writes of
Deane to, 205; Superintend-
ent of Finances, 216; opinion
of Deane, 259; 30, 35, 130,
138, 184, 236, 263, 265, 268
Morris, Thomas, brother of
Robert, 88
Nantes, Austin leaves, no;
64, 88, 106, 119, 141, 145,
175
National party, 142
Naval Committee, sends Deane
to New York, 36
Navigation Act, 184, 219, 228
Netherlands, Deane starts for,
177
New Hampshire, ships reach,
90
New Haven, Jared Ingersoll of,
14; opposition to Stamp Act
, in, 15
New London, opposition to
/Stamp Act in, 15; Deane to
go to, 36
New Materials on American
War, by Durand, 107
New York, coach from Boston,
to, 5; hats sold in, 8; trade
with, II; Deane arrives in,
22, in hands of British, 105;
Deane's letters published
in, 195; 91
Newfoundland, 186
284
Index
Newport, merchants against
Connecticut, i8; in hands of
British, 105;
Newton, FrankHn compared to,
96
Nicholas, no longer member
of Congress, 189
Nicholson, Mr. S., writes Car-
michael, 156
North, Lord, writes of Deane,
200; 55, 108, 217
Nova Scotia, 186
Oldham, John, goes to Py-
quag, I
Packet, Philadelphia, Deane
writes in, 144; Paine writes
in, 148
Paine, Thomas, Deane debates
with, 31; friend of Lee, 121;
Secretary of Committee, 148 ;
answers Morris, 148; Deane
answers, 148; attacks Deane,
150; uses letters against
Deane, 202; 151, 156, 175
Paris, Deane arrives in, 44;
Steuben visits, 84; Lee ar-
rives in, 89; Franklin in, 93;
Deane in, 166, 176; Deane's
fruitless year in, 178; Deane
longs to go to, 208; 73
"Paris Letters," see "Inter-
cepted Letters"
Parliament, complaints against,
20; 107
Parsons, General S. H., Deane
writes, 28, 188, 191
Parton, writes of Franklin, 94
Passy, Franklin lives in, 95;
treaty signed at, 107; Austin
goes to, no; 67, 93
Pendleton, no longer member
of Congress, 189
Pennsylvania, hostilities of
Virginia and, 190
Pequots, 2
Perch, sailing of, no
Philadelphia, Continental Con-
gress held in, 20; in hands
of the British, 105; Deane
reaches, 133; Deane's long
wait in, 140; 28, 115, 224
Philadelphia Packet, see Packet
Plato, 94
Portland, Duke of, 218
Portugal, 47, 186
Portsmouth, ships reach, 90;
John Langdon of, 100; Am-
phitrite arrives at, loi ; car-
goes reach safely, 108; 91,
130, 226
Prague, Jerome of, referred to,
268
Priestly, Dr., 234, 257
Prussia, 120
Putnam, Gen. Israel, Deane
writes of, 34; deplores the
Revolution, 268
Pulaski, 91, 134
Pyquag, Oldham goes to, i
Pyrenees, Deane goes over the,
44
Quebec, governors of, 244; 2
Randolph, president of Con-
gress, 27
Rayneval, Gerard de, see
Gerard
Reed, Joseph, accusation by
Lee against, 99; 115
Republic, its debt to Deane,
265
Revolution, The, 265
Rivingtons, The, Deane's let-
ters published by, 183; 196
Robbins, Jonathan, Capt. buys
shoes, 7
Rochambeaux, confers with
De Grasse, 193; 193
Rochford, Lord, sent to count-
eract Deane, 50
Roderique, Hortalez & Co.,
Deane to do business with,
53 ; forming of , 61 ; straits of,
66; Deane does business
with, 73; 64, 100, 126, 128
Rodney, 180
Index
285
Root, Jesse, Deane writes to,
190
Royal Gazette, The, Deane's
letters in, 183, 196; 262
Ruffec, De Broglie's country-
seat, 83
Russell, Mr., 234
Russia, 139, 186
St, Denis, Beaumarchais born
in, 54
St. Domingo, 56, 226
St. Francis, 57
St. George's churchyard and
Deane's grave in, 253
St. Lawrence, Deane's plan
for, 244
Sabatier, Lee writes of, 122;
Deane unable to settle with,
177
Safety, Committee of, 39
Saltonstall, Elizabeth, second
wife of S. Deane, 3
Saltonstall, Gurdon, 109
Saratoga, Burgoyne's surren-
der at, 39, 90, no; 130,
226
Savannah, blacks for, 5; 38
Savonarola, referred to, 268
Saybrook Bar, buoys erected
in, 19
Schuyler, Col., Deane writes
of, 33; 29
Schuylkill, Deane rides to, 33;
Coudray drowned in the,
78
Scotland, 88
Scylla, 189
Searles, 174
Sebor, Jacob B., Deane writes
to, 196
Secrecy, Committee of, Deane
a member of, 29
Secret Correspondence, Com-
mittee of, forming of, 41;
letter from, 45; does not
reply to Beaumarchais, 62;
Deane writes to, 84; Deane
writes for word from, 86;
Deane writes for shipments,
d>7', Deane writes of ship-
ments, 88; Deane agent for,
92; behind Deane, 117; 138,
178
Secretary to the King, Beau-
marchais buys office of , 54
Seine, The, 149
Seven Years' War, 57, 81
Shelbourne, Lee writes to, 107;
145,212
Sherman, Judge Roger, a dele-
gate for Connecticut, 21;
joins Deane and Dyer, 22;
description by Deane of,
23; elected to second Con-
gress, 28; Deane debates
with, 31
Soheag, Indian chieftain, i
Sons of Liberty, 14
South Carolina, delegates
from, 23
Spain, Deane lands in, 43; Lee
seeks help from, 102; Court
of, 131; unfriendly to Amer-
ica, 177; 47, 145, 172, 186,
191
Spanish King, promises money
to America, 60
Sparks, referred to, 58; writes
of Lee, 63; referred to, 97
Stamp Act, opposition to, 14
States Rights party, 142
Steuben, Baron, commissioned
by Deane, 84; 91, 134
Stormont, British ambassador
to France, 93; leaves for
London, 113
Strassburg, 119, 141
Suffield, Lord, author of a
pamphlet, 218; Deane writes
to, 245; 231
Sumner, Prof. W. G., referred
to, 161
Superintendent of Finance,
Morris made, 177
Susquehanna claims, settle-
ment of, 19
Sweden, 186
Sydney, Lord, approves
Deane's plans, 249; 245, 247
286
Index
Tallmadge, Benjamin, Deane
writes to, i8i, 191, 195;
writes Deane, 203
Temple, The, Lee studies law
in, 97
Theodosiiis, etc., by Rev.
Philip Withers, 256
Thomson, Charles, Deane
writes, 188
Thorpe, Samuel W., Lee writes
to, 206
Ticonteroga, Fort, capture of,
28; money raised for taking
of fort, 28; 2
Tories, 266
Toulon, 113, 115
Townsend, J. T., Bancroft
writes, 247; 212
Treat, Parson, Deane writes
of, 24
Trent Town, Deane in, 25
Trumbull, J. H., 28; letter to
Deane from, 35; author of
McFingal, 199
Trumbull, Gov. Jonathan,
Deane writes to, 21, 195;
27
Turgot, French Minister of
Finance, 57
United States, Deane sends
address to, 221
Valfort, M. de, 83
Valley Forge, soldiers in, 189
Vergennes, M., Minister of
French Affairs, 49; adopts
cause of America, 57 ; reasons
for helping colonies, 58 ; backs
Beaumarchais, 61; Deane
applies to, 61; committee
writes to, 68; Deane and, 73;
commissioners call on, 100;
Deane tries to see, 103; anx-
ious for treaty, iii; Deane
calls on, 112; presents com-
missioners, 113; commission-
ers dine with, 114; Gerard
writes, 116; Deane writes
to, 118; writes Deane, 129;
Gerard writes to, 143; 56, 65,
91, 134, 156, 175, 184, 222
Versailles, Austin goes to, no;
Deane acceptable at, 120;
Court of, 156; 49, 54, 94, 139
Vienna, Court of, 131, 145;
239
Ville de Paris, De Grasse's
flagship, 194
Virginia, delegates from, please
Deane, 25; hostilities of
Pennsylvania and, 190; 62,
63, 115, 229
Voltaire compared with, 96
Wadsworth, Jeremiah, Deane
writes, 187, 250; writes
Deane, 196
Wartburg, Luther in, 268
Washington, George, buys
boots in Wethersfield, 7;
Deane writes of, 27, 32;
writes Morris, 40; De Kalb
tries to replace, 82 ; National
party, 142; confers with De
Grasse, 193; Deane writes,
251; 26, 27, 29, 30, 31, 35,
80, 83, 161, 188, 189, 193.
227, 229, 267, 270
Watertown, Oldham leads ad-
venturers from, I
Watson, Ebenezer, of the
Courant, 29
Watson, Elkanah, interview
with Deane, 198; writes
opinion of Deane, 198, 199
Ways and Means, Committee
of, Deane a member of, 30
Webb, David, appointed to
prevent importation, 17
Webb, Joseph, Deane writes
to, 164
Webb, Mehitabel, marries
Silas Deane, 3
Webb, Samuel B., stepson of
Deane, 22; on Washington's
staff, 22; Deane writes, 244
Wedderbum, sent to counter-
act Deane, 51
West India Islands, French, 86
Index
287
West Indies, blacks for, 5; pipe
staves shipped to, 7; trade
with, 11;, 26, 221, 228, 229
Wethersfield, the settling of , i ;
first century of, 2; Silas
Deane comes to, 2; popula-
tion of, 3, 4; slaves in, 4; life
in, 5 ; first grist mill in, 6 ; tan-
neries in, 6; industries of,
6 ff.; crops in, 8; distilleries
in, 9; fruit in, 9; views on the
Revolution, 13; delegates of,
14; Ingersoll's visit to, 15;
people show opposition to
King George, 16; meeting
held in, 17; people of, sympa-
thize with Boston, 18; pride
in Deane of, 21; death of
Mrs. Deane in, 109; 25
Wilkinson, assists Deane, 245
Williams, Elias, appointed to
prevent importation, 17
Williams, Elisha, appointed to
prevent importation, 17; 4
Williams, Ephraim, account
book of, 6
Williams, Ezekiel, appointed
to prevent importation, 17
Williams, Israel, Col., 6
Williams, Jonathan, letter of,
175
Wilson, James, Deane writes
to, 180, 194, 216
Wilton, James, Deane writes,
190
Windham, opposition to Stamp
Act in, 15
Windsor, views on the Revolu-
tion, 13; delegates of, 14
Winthrop, referred to, i, 2;
reaction against, 13
Withers, Rev. Philip, supposed
author of Theodosius, etc.
256
Wyllys, Col. Samuel, 28
Wythe, no longer member of
Congress, 189
Yorktown, surrender of Com-
wallis at, 39; De Grasse at,
191; Washington in com-
mand at, 193; 268
2036
i
"^
0--
^IW.- .^^
,v ^
^ A^
' 0 . s -^
^^<=^^.
%4'
'^^.
/\
,-^
^■%.VM
..^r
i- 6
' " r
**-,
-. * .0 M 0 ^
^"^ ^i^
:^^
/■
>■ <, <,
.^ ^'-^^
o , ,-^ A
.•^^ .<-'
^"^^ -'^<^<m£r
-o o'
.^^ -n^.
iiiiii
■ if
'''mm
Live Music
Archive
Librivox
Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland
Museum of Art
Internet
Arcade
Console Living Room
Open Library
American
Libraries
TV News
Understanding
9/11